Draconian Chains of Fate
by Fortuitoux
Summary: An SI who only has watched the HBO 'Game of Thrones' show gets reincarnated in ASOIAF verse as Maegor the Cruel's twin brother.
1. Act 1 - 1 Prologue

**Dragonstone (48 AC)**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

"Mother, please stop pacing and sit down. You were the one who begged father to put an end to this madness. There is no point in being nervous now."

I turn around to see my youngest son Daneal's face sporting a smirk as he closes the book he had been reading and looks towards the window. On the other side my eldest twins Aurea and Rhea who were chatting, stop their discussion and turn to face me.

"I wish I was there to watch the duel. Songs and ballads are going to be sung about it by bards for decades, maybe even centuries. I don't understand why father forbade us to leave Dragonstone."

Daneal's twin Samael responded to his brother and moved closer to the window. When did he enter the room? I didn't sense him enter the room at all. I must be losing my touch. My agitated state is not helping either. It was rather rare for the four to be gathered under one roof these days. The boys usually were busy with helping their father at Stepstones and Rhea had just returned back from the Citadel a few moons ago. Her skill at 'Shapeshifting' apparently made it ok for her to infiltrate the citadel as an acolyte.

This madness, as Danny eloquently stated, started five moons ago when my mother convinced Lord Baratheon to announce my brother Jaehaerys' claim to the Iron Throne. King Maegor has been losing support of the Lords of major houses and mother had assumed that this would be the perfect time to announce the claim so that the rebelling Lords would have a focus to gather around and eventually stage a coup. Initially even I assumed that this would be the end of Maegor's cruel reign. When my husband, Prince Rhaegor heard the news he laughed for five minutes straight and when he regained his composure asked me the question that sent a cold shiver down my spine.

"You know they are all going to get slaughtered right?"

He signed and continued, "I assumed your mother would have learned her lesson after goading Aegon to his death and being partly responsible for Viserys' death. Do you honestly think we need the support of these sniveling Lords? When they have a dragon that can challenge Balerion then we can talk about a true rebellion. Vermithor would need at least 10 more years before Balerion even considers him as not a bug to be squashed."

True to his statement, based on the report of the battle we received later, the Lords who had been expecting Maegor's forces saw only the Black Dread fly towards them from the horizon. Eventually as the magnificent beast came closer it cast a shadow covering nearly one third of the gathered rebel forces. It was a slaughter. Balerion toyed with both Vermithor and Silverwing. The King took great care to not kill anyone important. With Jaehaerys and Alyssane captured, King Maegor demanded the Lords for their unconditional surrender. He even pointed out that he would be glad to re-enact the Field of Fire from the Conquest if they wanted a history lesson.

When my husband heard the news he just chuckled and replied with a smug face, "I told you so." I hate that smug face.

I was frantic and panicking. I had already lost Aegon and Viserys to mother's schemes, and I didn't want Jaehaerys to be the third brother to lose to my uncle/goodbrother. Then it got worse when Rhaegor told me with a frown that apparently the scattered remnants of the Faith Militant that had gone dormant, since the series of events Rhaegor fondly calls 'The Smackdown', had also joined forces with the rebel lords. I was enraged. I still didn't want my brother, sister or mother to be killed by King Maegor but allying with the fanatics that were responsible for the death of her husband and previous king was not something I expected my mother to do.

Rhaegor was nonchalant about the whole issue stating, "Your brother and sister are safe. Your mother on the other hand I don't know what to do with that woman. She lost my respect when she encouraged Aegon to rebel against Maegor and when she fled Dragonstone with Jaehaerys and Alysanne while attempting to steal my sword, she gained my enmity. Now with this rebellion she has become a nagging headache. If she wasn't family I would have already killed her and gotten rid of that headache."

I cringed internally when he brought up the Dark Sister incident. However, Rhaegor agreed to help mediate terms with the rebel Lords and the King. At the council in King's landing, King Maegor announced Jaehaerys as his heir to the throne. The gathered Lords now had a faint glimmer of hope that they would see mercy and not fall victim to the King's rage. That however quickly ended going south with King Maegor demanding every Seven Pointed Star in Westeros to be burnt to even start negotiating terms with the rebellious Lords.

Rhaegor wanted to disband the Faith Militant and wanted to institute the policy he called 'Separation of Church and State' which would kill any political power the Faith would have on the Crown or any of the kingdoms. Maegor wanted to kill it but Rhaegor wanted to neuter it. Somehow the argument between them ended up with Maegor and Rhaegor having a duel at the 'Arena of Kings' with the winner's terms accepted for the settlement. Either way the Faith and the Lords were getting shafted but the difference between total annihilation and total humiliation depended on this duel.

When I heard about it I was reminded of the nickname my father fondly used on the twins during their childhood, 'The Idiot Duo'. It wasn't as exaggerated as I thought it would be. Deciding the fate of the realm on a duel? Idiots.

Rhaegor had outright refused to allow any of the family to come see the duel and ordered them to stay in Dragonstone. I have seen Rhaegor and Maegor in their swordplay practice when I was younger and the only way I would describe it is 'A dance steel and sparks'. They haven't dueled since Maegor's ascension to King and this is also going to be a serious duel. I don't think they will use magic else they would probably destroy the Arena. Thank heavens their dragons are not involved. Balerion and Vhagar fighting over King's Landing is not what you want if you live in that place.

The Duel was supposed to take place at dawn today and assuming things went smoothly Rhaegor should be back anytime now. The fate of the realm rests on a sword duel. As I was lost in thoughts I heard Sammy exclaim "I see Vhagar, father is back"

I looked out of the window to see the silhouette get bigger. All five of us rushed down to welcome him back.

As Vhagar landed I was able to see that something was not right. Rhaegor was sweating. I have seen the man stand inches away from Dragonfire and not break a single drop of sweat.

"What happened?" I ask as our sons help him off Vhagar.

He takes a few steps muttering "Faceless Men, Poison"

We walk into the castle and we reach the solar. Aurea closes the door and lets out a wave of energy saying, "The room is secure."

Rhea feels his pulse and asks him, "Did you find out what was used."

Rhaegor responds with a weary sigh, "Manticore venom, magically altered for our bodies."

Rhea face goes pale at the information and asks him "How long do you have?"

I don't like that question. He has been poisoned plenty of times and always shakes it off with a laugh. Even magical ones at worst I seen cause him to throw up his meals. I start to panic.

"What do mean by that? It is not the first time he has been a target of assassins," I ask my daughter with my voice rising.

Rhaegor responds saying "Maegor is dead."

I gasp and hear 4 more gasps around me. If someone or something could kill Maegor it could kill Rhaegor too. I should have been there. What were the fucking Kingsguard doing?

"I won the duel and we were both exhausted. The assassins struck at that moment. Our bodies with our bloodlines activated are resistant to almost all poisons and diseases but I guess I just found out the limitation to our resistance today. Maegor's killer struck his heart and killed him instantly. The poison had been altered to quicken its effects magically. My killer only managed a cut on my arm. I'm guessing the resistances were weakened due to exhaustion of our energy. Even now I can feel the poison burning towards my heart and my body doing everything to stop it. If I focus I can prolong it for about a moon's turn maybe two."

No. No. No. This is not how it was supposed to be. He can't die. I won't let him. I will burn the entire world if I have to.

I can see my children also seething. Danny asks "Who?"

Rhaegor chuckles and responds "Based on what I pulled from the thoughts of my killer. The contractor called himself a 'Representative of Westeros' and essentially spoke for all the Kingdoms under Targaryen rule. It was an obvious false flag."

He looks at me and smiles "Braavos must really hate our tolls at the Stepstones. That seemed to be the agreement. No help from Westeros when Braavos attempts to stop our operations there."

Sammy snorts back "I would like Braavos to try attacking us in the Stones. It has been a while since Sylvanas got to burn a fleet."

There was a knock on the door and Aurea opened the door and revealing Ser Eric Waters, Lord Commander of the Knights of the Silver Hand.

"Lord Commander was my prediction true?" Rhaegor asks him with his infuriating smug smile. I hate that smile. You are dying for fucks sake.

The Commander's face tenses up. He replies, "Your Grace, indeed it was. We were able to capture the entire group. They were indeed sent to burn down the castle and try killing your family. If we hadn't taken the precautions you asked us to, they would have succeeded and might have even killed the Princess and the children" Who? What? Where?

"Leave us Lord Commander. I need some time alone with my family. I will come meet with your prisoners once I'm done here".

"Yes your grace." Ser Waters leaves after a short bow. Aurea closes the door and seals it again.

I feel like something is not right. He is way too calm and smug for a man dying. "YOU. You are dying and you are behaving like it is just another day. You should no longer be exhausted so your resistances must be working against the poison. Then Ser Waters claims there was a near successful attempt on our family. Explain. What is going on?" I ask poking my finger on his chest.

Rhaegor sighs and starts explaining "Today was supposed to be a trap that Maegor and I were planning since Jae's claim was announced."

Aurea asks the question on everyone's mind "Trap for what?"

"Viserys' murderer"

I'm confused. "Didn't your brother kill him in retaliation for my mother's stupidity during the Dark Sister incident?"

He starts laughing "No my dear, my brother and I are idiots maybe, not kinslayers. Viserys was murdered by Tyanna."

He continues "I see you are still confused. Rhea what does the essence of Darkshade do?"

The what of what? Rhea ponders for a moment and then realization hits her face. She replies "Everyday intake would make you susceptible to anger and make you go into bouts of rage. I'm assuming Tyanna was magically altering it."

Rhaegor smiles and replies "Maegor realized that something was wrong when all his children were stillborn or deformed. The idiot assumed that he was cursed by something. With me denouncing all claims for the throne he started grooming Viserys for the throne. Viserys was supposed to inherit Blackfyre. So tell me now is there a reason for him to kill Viserys for your mother's attempt to steal Dark Sister? He was going through the process of helping unlock Viserys' bloodline. Viserys was murdered before it was completed. At that time I assumed my idiot brother went too far in a training bout and the wounds festered and killed him"

"Maegor was a muscle head but was not a rage monster like how he was perceived by everyone. Killing and maiming his unborn kids and making him go into fits of rage during court. This was a planned sabotage. The murder of Ceryse Hightower was what made me take a closer look. He didn't show it but he loved that woman and wouldn't have ordered her death even if she slandered him in public. Hell she did it a lot when they were separated. She found out about Tyanna and the people behind and was silenced".

"Who would do such a terrible thing"? I ask feeling disgusted. Killing children is a vile sin worthy of eternal damnation.

"Well that was the purpose of the trap. Our suspects include the entirety of Westeros nobility barring most of the Northerners. The main suspects however were the Maesters of the Citadel".

Wait? What? Why? How? He looks at my face chuckles and continues.

"The Maesters since the establishment of the Citadel have hoarded knowledge and power." After a pause he continues, "Now is a time to reveal a secret about me that only my mother knew."

He points to our children and asks "You have been studying various facets of magic and our bloodline for years. What do you know of the High Valyrian term 'Old Soul'?"

Aurea responds "A soul who has experienced multiple lifetime of experiences in a single one?"

"Close, but not completely correct. After death our souls apparently wander the multiverse looking for a suitable host to be reborn into. Typically the process takes too long that all memories of previous life are forgotten and you start fresh. Sometime in extremely rare cases you find your host fast enough that you retain your memories of previous life. That is an 'Old Soul'."

What the fuck? "Are you telling me you are a reborn soul with memories?"

There is his smug smile again "Yes love, I died when I was 35 years old in my previous life, in my previous world and I was reincarnated here".

The children start bombarding him with questions about his previous life while I take a moment to think. Everything fits. Their weird courtship. His weird words. His fondness for his mother over his father. His knowledge of unheard and unknown magic. His ridiculous thought process. Holy shit. Even that phrase was something I picked up from him. It still doesn't explain what he said.

"How does this relate to the maesters?" I ask during a pause between the children's questions.

"In my previous world we went from current Westeros level of technology to constructs that could take people to the moon within 800 years. So with the 8000 year of history since the Age of Heroes the best advancement Westeros had been during Andal, Rhoynish and Targaryen invasions. Rhea's mission was to investigate the citadel to find proof of this, unfortunately the grey rats are clean. So there is someone from the outside influencing the citadel or a group within that Rhea couldn't infiltrate."

Rhea snorts, "I don't think there is a place I can't infiltrate."

Rhaegor replies with a smirk, "Like there is no poison that would kill me?"

I just stand there with my brain frozen at this information. "Why?"

"When technology advances, quality of life for the smallfolk increases, the Lords gradually become irrelavent, power becomes distributed and the manipulators cannot control power as they do so now by manipulating the lords." He responds with a sigh. "It is what people in power do, they seek more power and refuse to let it go. Aegon, Viserys and your mother were all pawns because they couldn't manipulate us like the other nobles."

Danny asks, "So who held power in your previous world?"

"Before I answer that question there is something else you should know. My previous world had no magic or dragons."

Silence spread in the room for a few moments as the words sink into us.

"Then how do you know so much about magic theories and about dragons? You have knowledge that was lost to us since the Doom. Queen Visenya mentioned that your knowledge might even surpass the Valyrian Sorcerors." I blurt out and see him sporting an embarrassed smile.

He quickly composes himself and replies, "It is true that magic didn't exist but we had access to technology that could simulate magical worlds. I was responsible for the simulations of several such worlds. I'll explain about it later. My world's power was help by a group of extremely wealthy merchants working from behind the scenes and using the technologies the maester equivalents of our world develop to control the regular folk. I believe it is the same here. The maesters are puppets of this shadow group that want to remain in power."

Sammy quips up saying "So when do we go destroy the Citadel"?

Ah Sammy's solution to everything. Burn it with fire.

Rhaegor responds with a scoff, "Then what? Watch the entirety of Westeros turn against us for destroying 'The Beacon of Civilization'? No one would believe us and the place is well protected that the only option is a siege. Even with dragons the stuff we need is made up of parchment and we won't get anything if it is all burnt. Also we don't know if they are the culprits."

"Surely there is something we can do?"

"Yes leave this god forsaken place and don't look back."

"You mean just give up?"

Danny interrupts this back and forth saying "What father means is that we fight a battle that doesn't benefit us. If we win, we expose the citadel and the best we get is redemption for our uncles. Our knowledge in magic and technology far exceeds what the rats have in the tower. The ones we will be helping will hate us because they are sheep that follow other sheep and can't understand the mind of a dragon. On the other had if they are clean then we just wasted our reputation and time for nothing and give the real manipulators foreknowledge that we are looking for them".

That is a very well thought out answer. You are ten year old kid, you should be playing with swords and dragons not talk about war strategy and politics. What the hell is Rhaegor teaching these kids?

"I know. It's just that after all they have done to hurt our family it feels like we are giving up," Sammy responds with a frown.

Rhaegor then looks out of the window and tells them "As we are right now even with dragons we are not strong enough to take them on. When I die, you all will become easy targets. I call this a tactical retreat. Fall back shore up our weakness and strike when we are sure we have the advantage. Right now we don't even know who we are fighting against. They fucked up revealing their existence-"

"You are still dying," I put the damper on the heroic mood my stupid husband was trying to set interrupting him. "Can we not fix that first?" I ask, looking hopefully at my girls. They are the ones who know most about healing arts.

Rhea sighs and holds my hand "Mother, if the poison is progressing even with him not in his exhaustive state it means that the poison has adapted to his body and nothing we can do to change that. Antidotes are poisons that kill the poison. His body will reject any antidote that I try. His own body is slowly killing him from the inside. We could try to prolong his suffering to maybe a year or two. Do you really want to subject him to it?"

Always with your facts and logic. Not what I need at this moment.

"I'm sorry my loves. I messed up and I'm paying the price for it. I was arrogant and believed that I was invincible. Well now you all know that we have an issue with our bloodline we can work towards fixing it. As I always say the most intelligent people learn from other's mistakes."

Rhaegor beckons me towards him. I move forward and hug him tightly and I notice that I'm crying. There was a somber silence in the room.

Danny breaks it with the question, "What were you planning with the Lord Commander?"

Rhaegor strokes my hair and replies, "After the confrontation today my original plan was to kill whoever dared to harm our family and get the fuck out of this place move to Summer Isles or someplace nicer if we could find it and settle there. We have 6 dragons and boatloads of coin. We don't need to put up with the nonsense that is Westeros anymore. They can keep being frogs inside a well. I had already made arrangements in the Summer Isles. We would be isolated and we could develop our civilization from there like Old Valyria and eventually spread to Essos and maybe even Sothoryos if we become strong enough. However with how events shaped up today I realized that we are not strong enough to fight this group. Let's call them 'Entity'. We will have to retreat and hide while we build our strength and knowledge base for when we eventually face off against this Entity."


	2. Act 1 - 2 A Targaryen wedding

**Oldtown 25 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

I hate grand weddings. Even before my reincarnation I hated weddings. The idea of spending money enough to pay a down payment for a house on a one day affair seemed extremely stupid. Then 'Game of Thrones' show happened and the two epic wedding scenes made me realize that an extravagant wedding is not a bad idea to camouflage an assassination. Other than that they don't really serve a purpose. Now that I'm in the same world that uses weddings as assassination plots exacerbates my hatred for the grand waste of money. Unfortunately when you are the crown prince or the spare prince of the seven kingdoms, the wedding is naturally an extravagant affair.

'Starry Sept' is the equivalent of St Peter's Basilica of Westeros. This is where father was anointed as Ruler of the Empire of Westeros. Dorne is still apparently not a part of the empire. Of course no one calls it an empire because it would be too fucking easy. King of the six kingdoms sounds stupid if you think about it. Anyways the whole royal contingent is in the Starry Sept for my twin brother Maegor's wedding to Lady Ceryse Hightower. She seemed jovial and friendly when I had the chance to speak to her. This is also the second time I am being forced to attend an extravagant royal wedding. First was my half-brother the Crown Prince Aenys to his Velayron bride Alyssa. Surprisingly it was a very mundane wedding. No musicians with crossbows or poison or even disruptions in the itinerary.

One other aspect I find extremely weird compared to my previous life is the age of marriage. Aenys wed when he was close to being thirteen years old or namedays in the local vernacular. Also nameday is slightly different from birthdays. Apparently some Valyrian fuck decided that if a baby doesn't survive for a week then it doesn't deserve a name. So yeah a week after the birthday for us Valyrians. I'm thirteen namedays old but I look like a seventeen year old back on Earth. The same applies for the Andal and First Men children too but not as prounced as those of Valyrian heritage. We apparently mature faster because of our magical bloodline and heritage. Also we remain at peak body condition for way longer than others. For example father is fifty two namedays old but he looks like he is in his late thirties, the same can be said for mother and uncle Orys too.

So I guessed that time works differently here is Murder-Death-Kill world. My guess is time is dilated by around twenty percent. I make it a conservative estimate based on the lives of our Andal subjects. Each year has twelve moon turns so that is the same as the twelve months back on earth. Each moon turn is calculated at thirty days so the total number of days is also very close to the Earth calender. That means each day is twenty percent longer than Earth days. I think this was a disparity existed in the show too. I remember memes about how the show characters were two to three years older than their book counterparts. Maybe the show was portraying their actual earth equivalent age?

So Aenys got married when he was thirteen and his wife was a year older to him. It was a pure political marriage to unify the two Valyrian houses. A year later Alyssa gave birth to a daughter, Rhaena and stuff started getting weird. There was a question of the line of succession after Aenys. Mother tried to get Maegor betrothed to Rhaena to the fierce opposition from the Aenys, Alyssa and the High Septon. The High Septon then suggests a wedding between Ceryse and Maegor. Father accepted it and Rhaena's parents were relieved that they didn't have to betroth their not even one nameday old daughter. Ceryse is ten years older than Maegor and I. It reeked of a political powerplay by the Hightowers as the Septon is a Hightower. I didn't really care if they wanted to play politics with my brothers but when they started doing that to me I started getting irritated. So I tried the "I'm too young to get married" approach, which failed horribly as my brothers marry at thirteen, traitors. My plan is to be the Targaryen equivalent of Tyrion Lannister for as long as possible with respect to the marriage side. Travel the land, make friends and maybe have loads of fun with the ladies of the realm without having to be frowned upon by people around me for breaking the oaths of marriage. I'm a prince without any responsibilities and I'm taking advantage of that. So I put up once condition that my bride should meet.

"If you want to marry me defeat my mother in single combat."

Well a lot of ladies tried and failed miserably. Mother is a better fighter than father and all of his Kingsguard. The story of the Kingsguard's origin makes me smile. Typical no nonsense behavior from my mother. She didn't pull her punches. Just stated that father needs a dedicated protection squad after a failed Dornish assassination attempt. When father tried to play the manly "I can take care of myself" card, she cut his cheek showing that he couldn't. So naturally mother liked my condition. As I'm the third prince I have the liberty to forge my own path as long as I don't try to rebel against my brothers. She also liked the idea of having a warrior bride as my wife as it will result in stronger children. She considers most of Westeros women as dolls that only sharpen the mind ignoring the body. Only bark and no bite. I also like the idea of marrying someone, if I end up marrying, to be someone who can take care of themselves. This world is not an easy world for women. Rampant misogyny propagated by the Faith is somewhat distasteful. I guess this is what I can expect from a medieval feudalistic society.

Mother is also the only person who knows about my reincarnation.

**Flashback - Dragonstone 17AC**

"So, Rhaegor is there anything you would like to tell me."

Okay I must have pissed her off somehow. I don't think I did anything wrong. "Did I do anything wrong?"

"No my love but you are hiding something from me. Even now you are afraid that I would find out what you are trying to hide. Am I correct?"

Well fuck. Did she read my mind? Is that even possible? "How did you know I was hiding something?"

She laughs and pats my head. "I'm your mother. It is my nature to know things about you. Firstly you show too much interest in reading and books for someone your age. Second you learn at speeds that are expected from scholars. Third you use words sometimes that are unheard of by anyone. Before you answer, just know you can tell me whatever that is troubling you. You are a child and you should be free of such burdens. Whatever it is I'm your mother and I will always love and support you."

Well now I feel like an ass for doubting her love. "I know things and have memories that make no sense. I remember being older and being in a world with no dragons. Also remember flying in a machine that was faster than Vhagar. I also remember dying. It was painful. I thought I was possessed by the dead person's ghost. I also thought you would hate me if you found out." My mind says not to cry but my body is overwhelmed by the emotions and I start crying.

Mother hugs me. "No love you are not possessed. You have the Bloodline of a Dragon you cannot be possessed by a mere ghost. How old were you when you died in your memories?"

"Thirty five."

"So you should know enough about death and how the cycle works?" she asks me.

I seriously have no idea what she is talking about even adding up the two lifetime of memories.

"Well you were born with memories of your previous life. Valyrians call this 'Old Soul'." She explained in detail the mechanics of reincarnation according to Valyrian ideas.

Wow I was reincarnated for real with memories. Holy shit I have been isekaied in a magical world before the magic is gone. Battle mage it is. Totally going to get myself a teacher in magic.

"So what were you trying to learn from those books and failing."

"I was trying to learn to use magic."

"Magic? Boys your age want to fight with swords. Why magic?"

"Magic is awesome and I want to be good at it."

Wow my vocal filter is gone. I guess revealing the truth and having it explained makes this process much easier.

"Our magic is not from books my boy. It comes from within our blood. It is our bloodline. The path of magic is not an easy one you will have to work twice as hard as others. You will have to hone your mind and body to its limits and break through those limits only then you can use the magic weided by the Valyrian Archons."

"Yes mother, I will prove that I can achieve it." I grin at her. Alright training montage time.

**End Flashback – Back to Oldtown 25AC**

The training is still going I only managed to unlock my bloodline. It is so underwhelming. I'm supposed to the fastest Valyrian to achieve this feat. Apparently it takes about ten to twelve years and both Maegor and I managed it in eight and half ish. Initially Maegor was only interested in sword fighting and didn't care about the bloodline side of things but after seeing me catch up to him he started my training montage too. Mother and father have their bloodlines advanced to the next stage –activated bloodline. There is supposed to be a stage beyond that – unleased bloodline. Only a few Valyrian Archons had manage to reach that level. Targaryens were among the bottom feeders of the dragonlords so we don't even have information regarding the third stage. If my guess is right the three stage progression would be master warrior, magic warrior and battlemage. There are a few historical mentions about unleashed archons on how they turned the tide of battles against the Ghiscari legions by themselves. My goal is to get to that level.

I initially assumed that mother used some magic to make me tell the truth but later I realized that she just had really high charisma stat. It is something natural to our bloodline. Targaryens are naturally charismatic and our blood is overflowing with magical energy. In the show it was mentioned magic in the world died with the dragons and Daenaerys hatching them let to the resurgence of magic. The show also used blood as the reagent for magic which meant that to actively use magic you need to kill people for their blood or use stuff like leeches. I don't want to end up like Melisandre. However the show took place when magic was weakest in the world. I'm pretty sure the Night King would not have tanked a full powered flame breath from Balerion or Vhagar. Drogon was a dragon whelp. Even Aenys' Quicksilver is significantly bigger, faster and stronger than the show Drogon. I wish I had read some more of the books though. My knowledge of this world is from 'Game of Thrones' the book and the show. Knowledge of what caused the death of dragons would have been very helpful in preventing it. Well you win some you lose some.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts as Maegor and Ceryse enter the altar or whatever the circle under the seven statues is called. Maegor looks regal in his outfit and Cersye looks stunning in her wedding gown. I close my eyes and spread out my awareness to check for potential assassins in the Sept. Mother notices it and smacks me on the head. She hissed to me,

"Stop being paranoid. Weddings are held under the guest right. No harm will come to us."

Fortunately no one saw or heard that and I go back to looking around for good looking women that could accompany me in the latter affairs of the day. I notice little Rhaena trying to get a better view of the proceeding and point it to my mother as she was standing closer to her. Mother pulls the adorable munchkin up so she can see the wedding. What are Aenys and Alyssa doing? I look around and see uncle Orys and his wife Lady Agrella and their children. I wave to him and move towards him.

He jokingly mocks me, "So how many assassins did you find today?"

I respond with a deadpan, "It is all fun and games until you find a crossbow pointed to your throat when you are reciting your wedding vows."

He gave me wry smile in response. The septon started his sermon and that drew his attention. Though he is no longer father's Hand, he helps us whenever we meet by correcting mistakes in our swordsmanship and talks about the glory days of the Conquest. He is the stereotypical veteran uncle who boasts about his achievements in war but uncle Orys was what I would call a 'pure unadulterated badass'. The Dornish fucks had cut off his sword arm when he was taken hostage and he fell into depression. After many hours of Maegor and I nagging him to learn to wield his swords with his other hand he agreed and started getting out of his perma-depressed state. If Jamie Lannister could do it, Orys Baratheon could do it better. He is actually better than most of the tournament knights with his off hand. He must have been a nightmare to fight against in his prime.

When I first heard the tale of Dornish Conquest or the attempt, it seemed stupid. We had four magic warriors, three mature dragons, soldiers and supplies from six kingdoms and a desert stopped us? The problem was, Dornish people were primarily comprised of the Rhoynar and they have a huge hate boner for Valyrians as we chased them out from their Mother Rhoyne. Fucking cultists that worship a river and also very proficient in water magic, maybe the river had some magical properties. So even if we can get the Lords to surrender the common folk would rather die than submit to Valyrians. So the problem is they are religious fanatics and we are their Devil equivalents. So conquest of Dorne is a simple matter but holding on to Dorne is impossible without maintaining a standing army in all the major castles and cities. The Dornish also don't hesitate to fight dirty. Poison, traps and general guerilla warfare. The only way to truly make them submit is to kill them all and fill the land with regular sane people. The land is also an arid desert so most people who aren't Dornish would not prefer to live there. So the solution to this problem is basically leaving them alone and let them do their thing.

Dorne in the show had their Lords referred to as Princes similar to how they are called now. So it is a princedom and not a kingdom. So I'm guessing they joined the Iron throne as equals and not vassals. Probably a marriage alliance after my descendants lost their dragons. I don't imagine them or us making such a deal when dragons are present. They hate dragons and Targs, we have our reasons to hate Dornish. I wonder if there is a Dornish princess around my age. They are a more progressive culture towards women compared to the rest of the continent and they have badass warrior princesses. Mother, father and even uncle Orys would kill me for even suggesting such an idea. They don't see why conquest of Dorne is a futile prospect. I have heard historical reports of faith driven fanatics defeat significantly stronger opponents back in Earth.

I'm again pulled out of my thoughts and the fancy ceremony is over and Maegor kisses Ceryse. Well off to the feasting, dancing and getting shit face drunk. Ever since Maegor and I unlocked our bloodline getting drunk has become a near impossible task. We used to sneak wines away to see what was so special about the wines of Westeros before that. Now we just act like we are drunk. Being immune to poisons is not something that should be advertised when you have a significant portion of the continent who wouldn't mind you dead. Once we activate our bloodline even instakill poisons should be irrelevant.

We leave the Sept and start the horse and carriage ride towards Hightower. If Eiffel Tower was constructed out of stone it would look like Hightower. Bran the Builder, the same dude who built the wall, built the Hightower. On a funny note the Starks have their origins in the Reach. The rulers of Northerners are descendants of Reachmen. It's these subtleties that make me wonder if this world is just a parallel world to Earth and GRRM's inspirations were just some magical vision into the actual history of this world. The continents are named after directions. I have asked the maesters at King's Landing and others but they don't really have a unified name for the planet. One of the down sides of being in the medieval age when people believe that even lightning is a god.

I trot on my horse alongside Aenys and a couple of Kingsguard members. Behind us mother and Alyssa are riding the carriage with little Rhaena. They call it wheelhouse, just a fancy carriage. Aenys seemed to be in deep thought.

"What's troubling you brother?" I ask moving a bit closer to him.

He slows down a bit and I follow as we fall behind the Kingsguard. When they are out of hearing range from the two Kingsguard he replied, "Well we still haven't resolved the succession debate and with this wedding we have essentially created another branch of the Targaryen family. I worry that this might cause future troubles especially with the Andal families being involved. If I don't leave behind a male heir I can see these local Lords cause troubles and might not accept a Queen on the Iron Throne."

"The easiest solution to that is to have more heirs till you have a male heir. Then again I can see that Rhaena or her children contest claim for the throne." I jokingly respond.

"If I have a male heir and Rhaena marries him we could eliminate that issue." He ponders as we continue the trot.

I respond with a smirk saying, "Well then time for you and Alyssa to make more kids. I won't say no to more adorable little Targaryens."

He laughs and replies, "If things go smoothly Maegor should also be giving you little Targaryens to spoil."

I smile and internally cringe. Poor Ceryse, Maegor wouldn't recognize subtlety even it hit him straight on his face. Ah well, the Hightowers wanted a prince and they got one.

"So are you still sticking to your condition for your wife?" Aenys asks me with a smirk.

"Of course, eventually mother would grow old enough that she might not be able to duel my potential bride." I respond with a grin.

The signs of realization hit Aenys' face. "So this is just a ploy to avoid marrying young."

"Officially it is to further the warrior bloodlines of us dragon riders. Unofficially I just want to enjoy the delicacies of Westeros without it being frowned upon by people around me." I reply with a shrug.

Aenys snorts and replies, "Of course I should have expected something convoluted from something so benign and straightforward especially since it came from you. Both of you are idiots. You know how I had to convince Maegor to accept this wedding?"

Looking at my puzzled look he continues, "I told him it would make him a better warrior if he had a wife and child of his own. With something for him to protect he would become a stronger warrior."

I was impressed. I assumed Maegor buckled under pressure from mother, which is true. Aenys' reasoning was probably also another major factor for his agreement.

"Also you both keep talking about dragon riding even when you haven't chosen one to ride on. Idiots. Is it such a hard concept to accept? Hatch eggs, bond with your dragon and increase the strength of our family by adding more dragons to our family's dragonflight," he asks with exasperation.

What started off as a stupid argument between Maegor and I on choosing dragons ended up with us deciding to wait for Balerion and Vhagar respectively. Aenys was not happy, he wanted more dragons and hatching one and bonding to it is considered as an honor for dragon riders.

"What happens to Balerion and Vhagar after mother's and father's deaths? They are the largest dragons we have and are you going to risk exposing a baby or a child to tame those two. We are your best hope if you want to keep those two dragons active during your reign." I respond to his accusation with my counter point.

"I don't want them active in my reign."

What the fuck? Did he hit his head or something?

"Why?"

"Those two dragons represent the conquest. If they are active then my reign would be still under the shadows of father's. Right now we rule from the Iron Throne because we have the biggest stick. We are outsiders. I want my reign to be one of cultural assimilation where the smallfolk accept Valyrian values and culture, not because they are afraid of being burnt by dragons but because we bring better life to them."

"You do know that Valyria reached its pinnacle on the backs of slave labor, right? An idea they got from the Ghiscari Conquest. So Valyrian value is to take what benefits us from the local populace and use it to exploit them. Even right now the entirety of Essos is messed up because of what our ancestors did to the continent."

"How are lives of the smallfolk in Westeros any different from the slaves of Valyria? They suffer harsh conditions and almost everything they make is paid to their Lords as taxes. Most Lords do not enforce the King's laws leading to increased bandit activity."

"They have the illusion of freedom, but yes they are almost slaves. Your solution?"

"The Lords need to feel responsible for the lives of the smallfolk under them. Each Lord would be taxed not just based on the size and yield of his holding but also based on the number of peasants working under them. This way each lord will try to have only the bare minimum needed for the upkeep of the land and the people who are not needed at one place can move towards regions that need them. Well the initial move is going to cause a lot of problems but once the dust settles down stability is guaranteed. Lords will need to protect the people in their lands if they are to maintain their income."

Holy shit. He is absolute bonkers. He would just exponentially increase the number of bandits and lose faith in the Lords for trying to remove people from their protection and causing them to turn to banditry. How do I explain this to him without telling his that he is stupid?

"What do you plan on doing when the displaced people resort to banditry?"

Aenys frowns, "Why would they do that? There will be plenty of opportunities in other Lordships? Worst case they would need to move to the nearby kingdoms and make use of opportunities there."

"Move to nearby kingdom or join an existing bandit group and become big enough to contest the Lords they worked for? I see a choice made there easily."

"You are too cynical little brother. Believe in the goodness within people they will make the right choice. We just have to provide the necessary guidance."

Ok he is not mad, just an idiot. Probably good that he is not on the throne yet. Needs more work with his maesters if, he thinks that he can introduce such drastic tax reforms before our rule is fully stabilized.

"What you suggest is a big overhaul of the tax system and we don't have the necessary groundwork for implementing it."

"What does working on the fields have to do with it?"

What? Oh groundwork.

"It is just another word I made up meaning extensive preparations."

He rolls his eyes in exasperation and continues, "Just use the proper words. Anyways the preparations would have to be done by the Lords of the kingdoms. After I ascend to the Iron Throne I plan on visiting the major Lords and discussing about my ideas on how well it could be implemented in their demesne."

On the bright side I can see he has put a lot of thought into it. He wants the system to be more efficient but increased efficiency means reduced redundancy. That is not something I want to mess with in a continent with magical decade long winters. If anything we should start with reforms that could increase the average life expectancy of the smallfolk because when people start dying all plans go out of the window.

We reach the portcullis of Hightower's main entrance. This building makes no sense structural engineering wise. My brother back on Earth would go nuts trying to figure this out. Of course magically strengthened foundations and lower levels built by Bran the fucking Builder means some of the basic physics from Earth stops working. We eventually reach the stables where we see Ser Richard Roote, a Kingsguard knight waiting for us. He escorts us to the great hall where we are joined by mother, Alyssa and Rhaena who were waiting for us. Father is seated on the high table and is discussing something with Lord Hightower. Mother takes the seat beside him and we settle down for the feast.

It takes some time but eventually all the important people have settled down for the feast. Father starts his speech and I start looking around for any abnormalities. I have a gut instinct that something is going to go wrong. Aenys' wedding was the exception to the Westerosi rule. Fortunately nothing happens, father finishes his speech, everyone cheers for the new couple and we start the feast. Lord Tyrell stops by and becomes the eleventh person today to ask me when I plan to wed as we were enjoying the feast.

"I will marry the woman that defeats Queen Visenya in single combat." I think after answering that question so many times it has sort of become a reflex action.

"Your grace, it would be fool's errand to even attempt the duel." was his response.

"Well maybe not. Eventually I think someone might impress mother enough and convince her to concede the duel."

Mother snorts from the high table, "And dishonor a challenge? You made the challenge and I approved it."

"Well you heard it Lord Tyrell no wedding for me anytime soon. No one is defeating her anytime soon."

"I will defeat her and become the strongest warrior Queen." I hear Rheana squeak from my other side face full of determination.

I laugh and ruffle her hair saying, "Of course you will, little drake." Rhaena swats my hand away and pouts.

The whole table bursts out in laughter. It was a picture perfect moment. I really hope the rest of the evening continues on this high note.

Of course I had to tempt Murphy. I suddenly had the weird feeling that something was about to happen. I try to spread out my awareness as stealthily as possible. Mother of course notices me and rolls her eyes. Of course she doesn't have the meta knowledge I do as I have not told her the events of the show. Suddenly my instincts scream at me that something is going to happen. Right on cue the doors open and a dude in full plate walks in followed by two more flanking him. I'm assuming knights and guessing from the tabard on the one leading them he is from House Florent. The others are wearing rainbow colored tabards? Weird. Oh well it is happening. The Florents hate us as we gave the Reach to Tyrells over them. I don't see a problem there as the Tyrells were the only ones who had the sense to not try face three fully grown mature dragons in open combat with swords. They had common sense which took priority over the line of succession to the Gardener Throne. That made them the obvious choice for ruling the Reach.

The Kingsguard form a wall between them and us. That was pretty fast. Wait, how did the three even make it to the hall? Did they have help from inside the castle?

"What the fuck are you doing here Ritter? Who even let you in?" Lord Hightower proclaims in outrage towards the Florent knight called Ser Ritter.

"Lord Hightower we are here to put an end to the perversion of a holy ceremony in the Faith of the Seven," announces Ritter.

What the fuck? Well at least they are not assassins. If they are, then they are really bad at their jobs.

Ritter then points to Maegor and proclaims, "This boy is an abomination in the Eyes of the Seven, a product of incest, and as such I cannot in my honor and pride as a knight of the Seven allow him to sully a fair maid and desecrate the holy institution of marriage."

Is this an ex-boyfriend thingy? The idiot knight sounds very much like a jealous ex-boyfriend.

"What is the meaning of this?" Father is growls angrily.

"Your Grace, just a bunch of overzealous knights," Lord Hightower goes into damage control mode, "that should know their places." He mentions the last part with an angry snarl towards the Knight and his rainbow stooges.

Ritter however continues to dig his grave. "Lord Hightower how can you allow this travesty to happen to your own daughter-"

Maegor interrupts him with a growl saying, "The wedding is over, she is mine now. What do you want?"

Oh boy, this is bad. Maegor is pissed. RIP Idiot Florent knight you just finished digging your grave. Wait this Ritter's group reminds me of Enrico Maxwell's posse from Hellsing Abridged. Are these guys some sort of Westeros equivalent to the Catholic Army? Like Templars or Hospitaliers?

"I challenge you to a duel in front of the Seven. Let the Seven judge you if you are worthy to wed a maid raised in the Faith of the Seven." Ritter just challenged Maegor. Dude there are way easier ways to kill yourself. Is he even allowed to make a challenge like this? I hate weddings.

Maegor rolls his eyes and responds, "You want to die? Sure. I'd rather do it outside. Blood doesn't go well with the feast."

"The training yard is this way, Your Grace." one of the Hightower knights escorts Maegor to the training yard

I look around and see Father still not pleased with the turn of events. Mother on the other hand doesn't seem to be bothered by this nonsense at all. She is chatting with Lady Agrella and Alyssa while holding Rhaena's hand and they move towards the balcony overlooking the yard. Aenys and I follow Maegor and Ritter towards the yard.

The topic of incestuous relationships had come up during my discussions with mother on my previous life. I knew that the Targaryens practiced incest based on the show.

**Flashback Dragonstone 22 AC**

"I'm done for the day, every part of my body hurts." I'm on the ground tired and sweating after an intense sparring session with mother.

"Yes I can see you boys are at your limits. Now go get yourselves cleaned up and get ready for dinner."

After a quick bath I join mother in the solar and see her reading some reports and hear her muttering something about father.

"Mother I have been meaning to ask this for a while. How did it feel marrying your brother?"

She looks at me weirdly and then realizes my question's meaning, "I assume this is about incest?"

I nod.

"Incest does have it problems. Everything gets compounded your strengths and your weaknesses. However our bloodline magic lets us remove the weaknesses caused by the union and improves the strengths. Dragonlords back in Valyria married among families of equal power. Sometimes political friction left some families isolated. Instead of choosing to marry into a less powerful house they preferred marrying among themselves when they realized that our bloodline helps remove the unwanted aspects of our union. Even among dragon lords only those who unlocked their bloodlines can avoid the detriments. Those with locked bloodlines practicing incest is the same as a commoner practicing it. Leads to significant weakness and madness."

Well fuck, the show Targs being mad might actually have a valid reason.

"If the partners have activated bloodlines then the improvement to the benefits and the removal of detriments are significantly higher. It is the reason Rhaenys and I waited so long to have kids. The three of us only managed to activate our bloodlines around the time of the conquest. I activated it first with help from your grandfather two years before the conquest. Aegon activated his bloodline one year post the conquest followed by Rhaenys 3 years after the conquest both with my help. This made sure your base bloodline strength is much higher than that of ours"

"So Aenys' weakness is not due to incest like the servants gossip about?"

Mother frowns at the question. "How dare they insinuate such slander?" oh boy that pissed her off.

Maegor chooses that moment to walk in being done with his bath. He is confused at the tension that is in the air and looks at me for answers. I simply shrug.

"This has been a secret known only to your father, Rhaenys and me. When Aenys was about 2 namedays old he was attacked by a Dornish assassin. We killed the assassin but he manage to poison the child. The only cures for the poison we had access to were magical in nature and we had to use it. When you perform bloodline curing to children that young, when their body is undeveloped there is a high chance for the procedure to cause undesired side effects. The cure weakened his constitution and he lost his ability to activate his bloodline. With enough training he might be able to unlock his bloodline but nothing beyond that. His weakness has nothing to do with his heritage."

Well that explains the hate boner we have for the Dornish.

"The Andals who criticize our practice of incest also practice it. They marry first cousins all the time. It has nearly all the same problems of sibling incest and they also have no way to remove or prevent those problems. Well that should explain your question. Let us go have diner."

**End Flashback – Back to Oldtown 25AC**

Mother also stressed that letting the bloodline run thin would be a recipe for the downfall of the family. It made sense from the Targaryen point of view. Inter marrying with the Andals and First Men would mean the dragon bloodline is spread. If by off chance they manage to hatch dragons then it would be the end of the stability of the Iron Throne. At the same time we also need to establish better relationships with the Great Houses and marriages are the best way to establish that. Back on Earth Queen Victoria's descendants ruled all over Europe. Some historians even claimed that the first Word War was just a giant family feud caused by three cousins. So after some back and forth debate I agreed with her thought process that all female Targaryens and Male heirs should marry either Targaryens, Baratheons or Velaryons. Male spares could be used to foster ties with the other prominent houses in Westeros.

I turned and ask Aenys, "Any idea who those rainbow knights are?"

He replies, "You know, both you and Maegor should go out more. All you do is study and train. Gaining worldly knowledge is not a bad idea."

I roll my eyes as he continues, "They are the 'Warrior Sons' the knightly branch of the Faith Militant. They have a major presence in all the major Andal cities. They have a presence of about 500 knights in King's Landing alone"

Faith Militant during the show was run by the High Sparrow as more of a peasant uprising against Cersei Lannister's stupidity. These guys are almost like Templars back on Earth. If I had learned anything from Assassin's Creed it is that Templars are bad guys. It doesn't directly apply but based on my extrapolation of future events and the rainbow knights supporting Ritter, I can assume they are not on my family's side. Still it is not enough data to arrive at a conclusion. They need to be carefully handled. Also I'm so going to create an order of knights called Templars just to fuck with them. They will serve the Temple of the Dragon Gods which also doesn't exist but that's just finer details.

As we near the training area, I stop Maegor and whisper into his ears, "Dude, I know you are angry but this fight needs to make a point. After this fight no one should be have the balls to issue such an open challenge to you."

He looks at me and nods as I pass 'Morgul' to him. It is one of my daggers that I got as a nameday gift a couple of months back. Aenys got Blackfyre, the great sword for his thirteenth nameday as the heir and the symbol of Targaryen power. So when our thirteenth nameday was nearing mother wanted to give Dark Sister to Maegor. He is the best warrior of us three so it was a no brainer for him to get it. Father wanted me to get a Valyrian steel weapon too. The thing about Valyrian steel is, it's fucking expensive. He sent messages to known blade holders inquiring if they are willing to sell it and no one wanted to. It is also a very big symbol of family prestige. So even families that have fallen upon the not so good side of the economic end were unwilling to sell their Valyrian blade.

By a pure stroke of luck we found a blade in the Iron throne that still maintained its perfect blade form and further investigation revealed it to be a Valyrian steel blade. Father immediately commissioned it to have a dragon bone hilt. Again another material as expensive as Valyrian steel. Forunately we had loads of that when the Dornish gave us back the bones of Meraxes as a part of the peace treaty. Seriously the Dornish are weird they could have sold it for millions of gold but no, their hate boner for dragons is strong enough that they wanted to be left alone and gave both Aunt Rhaenys' and Meraxes' bodies to us. So father hired Dragonstone's best artisans to make me a nice blade. It was to be either a short sword or twin daggers. The resulting weapon were a pair of black bladed daggers and I was asked to name them, I named one Morgul after the Nazgul weapon in LOTR and the other one Mehrune after Mehrune's Razor from the Elder Scrolls series. They even had their hilts pointing in the correct directions. Morghul's hilt points towards the handle so can be used to deflect blades swung at you and Mehrune's hilt points towards the blade and can be used to catch the blade swung at you.

The fighters were ready and the fight was about to start.

I turned to Aenys and said, "I bet you 50 dragons that Ritter will be crying like a bitch before the fight ends."

Aenys smirked and replied, "Sure, you have too much faith in Meagor's control. The fight will be decided in an instant."

The Man at Arms started to explain the rules of the duel. Maegor waits for him to be done and then announces, "If you manage to land even a single strike on me I will concede. I will attempt to strike you only once and I will kill you. You may concede before that if you want to live."

Well looks like Maegor is going to be toying with his prey. If he is really here for the Faith then he will concede but if he is a jealous ex then I hope he concedes. I want to go back to the feast. I smirk at Aenys. Looks like I'm going to win the bet. Maegor is still in his wedding regalia. The opponent is in full plate the onlookers all start tittering thinking my brother is mad and at a disadvantage.

Ritter charges forward and attempts a downward slash diagonally across his chest. Maegor takes a quick step back and avoids the blade by a few inches. Ritter follows it with a thrust at Maegor's face which is avoided by a sidestep. Ritter then tries to slash upwards towards his face which is predicted my Maegor and is avoided by a step forward as he gets really close to Ritter. Maegor uses Ritter's momentum against him and sends him tumbling down, after tripping his leg. Maegor then taunts him scratching his hair.

"Is this man really a knight? He seems so weak and useless."

Ritter is enraged and runs at him trying a thrust, Maegor side steps again and gives Ritter a shoulder check sending him sprawling on the ground. His sword goes sliding further out of his reach. Ritter panics and tries to reach for his sword and eventually get it. Maegor keeps taunting him with a smirk.

"You remember what I said? I will attack once and I will kill you. Want to concede? The folks here will only consider you a coward and craven but you will get to live."

Ritter snarls saying, "I'm no coward" and charges with a wide swing aimed at Maegor's chest. Maegor ducks the swing and get closer to Ritter and trips him again. Ritter tries to break the fall with his hands and twists his elbow and cries out in pain. Falling on the same hand thrice in a row with full plate would do that.

"Looks like something broke there. Are you sure you have even worn that armor before?" Maegor keeps on taunting. Maegor spreads out his presence and looks intimidating towering over the kneeling Ritter.

For the first time since the duel started Ritter looks scared. He lets out a small squeal and before he can concede Maegor pulls him up to his feet, thrusts the dagger up his chin into the head till the hilt, pulls it out and lets the body of Ritter fall. The he proclaims loudly

"Anyone else here have the stones to challenge me?"

Ah this is a Gladiator 'Are you not entertained moment'. The ladies in the balconies start cheering first followed by the folks around the yard and they start chanting his name. I consider this as an absolute win.

Aenys hugs Maegor as he walks towards us and exclaims, "Well done. You also made me fifty dragons richer."

Maegor hands Morgul to a nearby servant to get it cleaned and looks at me puzzled. "We made a bet that Ritter would cry like a bitch before he died. Well he started to but you killed him right at that moment. Ah well you win some, you lose some."

Maegor scratches his head and gives a nervous laugh, "I thought he would concede and so I acted."

"Ah no worries. I thought that he might at that moment too. Like I said we win some and we lose some. I have won far more money from Aenys than I have lost."

Aenys responds with a grumble, "I have been around you both to know enough about your quirks. All my losses were before that."

I start chuckling and eventually all three of us end up laughing as we get back towards the great hall. The servant gives the cleaned up dagger back to me. I whisper a thank you and keep walking towards the tables. We were waylaid by Rheana who was squealing in excitement and joy and proclaims,

"Maegor, I am going to announce you as my instructor in warrior training."

Maegor looks very confused towards me.

"I didn't win the duel by killing a fully armored knight with a dagger." I respond defensively.

Aenys starts chuckling too.

Rhaena continues, "I'm going to defeat Queen Visenya in a duel and become the best dragon queen of the realm and I need a worthy instructor. I accept you as worthy Maegor."

Maegor rolls his eyes and keeps moving towards his new wife. This seems like a flag. I nervously chuckle and ask her, "Why do you want to defeat the Queen?"

Rhaena looks like I asked something dumb, "Well she is the strongest and how can I be the strongest if I can't beat her."

I ruffle her hair and reply, "As long as you are clear on that little drake we have no problems." As usual she pouts and swats my hand away.

We walk towards the tables with Rhaena skipping between Aenys and me. I smirk at mother and proclaim my win, "I told you something would happen." She just gives me an exasperated look and pulls Rhaena on her lap and they both start eating. I settle down in my seat and enjoy the meal.

Once the wine starts flowing the hall gets a bit rowdy and the dancing starts. I dance with several ladies including Ceryse. I notice a pretty golden blonde girl in her posse and start buttering her up. I learn that she is a Lannister girl named Leonna whose father had been killed in the Dornish War saving the life of Lord Hightower and she was basically the adopted daughter of Lord Hightower. Must have been a branch of the Lannister House.

"So Your Grace, how do you impress girls? Prince Aenys does it with his musical talents and mystery, and Prince Maegor does it with his skills with the blade." She asked me with a teasing smile.

"Between us three I'm the brains. Wow the realm's future is fucked. I think I'm supposed to charm ladies with my intelligence?" I replied with a puzzled look.

She starts chuckling.

"So the Hightower was built by Bran the Builder right? Did you know the magical stones that were used to build the foundation of this building might be as strong as Valyrian steel?" Seeing her eyes widen I continue, "However it is only strong when you press it, if you pull or bend it, the stones will break easily. In Westeros only the Builder knew how to make these stones. They say he learnt it from the Children of the Forest."

Her eyes narrow and we continue our dance.

"You Grace, the Children were a myth propagated by the First Men to blaspheme against the Seven. The Smith' blessing helped the Builder help build his marvels."

I sigh internally. Religious nuts everywhere. The things I have to put up with to get laid.

"True. What if the Seven sent the Children as their Apostles to help the First Men but then the First Men didn't realize that and started worshipping the Children. They might have been indirectly worshipping the Seven."

"What do you mean by Apostles?" she responds with a frown.

"When Gods want to interfere in mortal lives do you think they would directly do it? They have far better things to do. They would send their servants to do their bidding. These servants of Gods are called Apostles. So First Men worship the Old Gods in the form of the land and life around them, Andals the Seven, Rhoynar worship the River Rhoyne, Volantean Red Faith worship R'hllor and Valyrians worship their Dragon Gods. What if all these were provided by the same Gods but the people misunderstood the meaning and started different Faiths."

She looked stumped. I can see her brain try to process the info countering years of dogma.

"It is an interesting thought to unify all the Gods in the realm as one entity, especially when Valyrians used religion as an idea to control the masses. So how did you come upon this idea."

"Well I can honestly say that I have otherworldly intelligence."

"I can now see how your 'otherworldly' intelligence can be used to charm women," she chuckles as we finish up the dance.

People are getting tired and someone shouts that it's time for the bedding ceremony.

Maegor clears his throat and announces, "Anyone who lays even a finger on my wife will wish that they were Ritter." He then proceeds to scoop her in a bridal carry and they disappear into the hallway.

Typical overprotective Maegor. Stand between him and his and you won't stand long.

I hear a husky whisper in my ear. "So Your Grace, should we continue our dance in my chambers."

I turned around to see Leonna with a teasing smile. I gulp, nod and follow her through the same hallway.

**Dragonstone (48AC)**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

"… for when we eventually face off against this Entity"

Arrangements in Summer Islands? How long has he been planning for this? He mentioned Ceryse's death, so that makes it three years. Wait, which means the entire Stepstones campaign, was a cover for our move to the Summer Isles? Ok, that's impressive. Unfortunately that doesn't stop me from being pissed that he hid this charade for three years from me. I hear a nervous chuckle.

"Love I know you are angry, but please stop broadcasting your rage. You still lack the fine control." He asks me while still stroking my hair.

I take a step back and growl at him, "What makes you think I'm trying to control? Why was I kept in the dark about all this? You knew this for three years and didn't think that I would be able to help you with this ridiculous plan of yours? I might be weaker than you and Maegor in a straight fight but I'm still the Warrior Queen of Dragonstone."

His face changes to a somber look.

"I realized that someone was working against our family from the shadows and doing a very good job at it. Aenys's poisoning when he was a baby was the first shot they took at our family. They assumed he failed but in truth he survived because of the ritual performed on him by mother and Aunt Rhaenys. It saved his life but it weakened his body and he was never able to fully regain his bloodline strength. They suspected Dorne for the attack and caused Aunt Rhaenys to go half cocked into Dorne in rage and we know how that ended. No one knew of this attempt and the Entity assumed that the King and his two Queens were too strong to act against and waited patiently for Aenys to ascend the throne, even after Aunt Rhaenys killing herself in rage."

"The faith uprising was definitely triggered by them. I even think Ritter's suicidal act at Maegor's wedding was just a probing action to gauge Maegor and my strength. As before that wedding we didn't show ourselves publically other than for major events. They succeeded in killing Aenys when they realized he wasn't easy to manipulate and they assumed they could use Aegon as a puppet. What they didn't expect was Maegor and I taking the reins and thoroughly destroying the Faith Millitant. Maegor's burning of the Seven Septs forced them into hiding. Our strength made them panic and they started making mistakes. Tyanna was their biggest mistake."

Ah yes 'Ritter the Fool' so blinded by his love that he challenged the warrior prince for the hand of Lady Ceryse Hightower. "Wait, if they killed Ceryse? Were they also responsible for Leonna's shipwreck?"

"Leonna took her kids and went into hiding and got a message sent to me fearing for their life after Ceryse's death. She even managed to find a ship to get back to Dragonstone. Turns out the ship was Tyanna's trap for her. Leonna was captain of Ceryse's guard and Tyanna knew that killing her in a straight fight would be too public and set the trap. Tyanna, took advantage of the fact that Leonna would prioritize her children's safety and used it to lure her into the ship to Dragonstone. The ship was rigged to explode with Wildfire. I managed to reach in time. I destroyed the ship, let it sink and brought them to Dragonstone in secret. When the news spread that they had been killed in the shipwreck I didn't bother to correct them to prevent more assassins coming after them-"

Sammy interrupts him asking excitedly, "Leo and Arty are alive? Where are they?"

Leoric and Artemis, Rhaegor's children from his lover Leonna Lannister. I should be angry but she claimed him before me and as my husband says, you win some you lose some. I feel a new headache staring now. She is the one of the most intelligent and ruthless woman I know. Where was she hidden for these three years? How did she even agree to remain hidden?

"They are at the Summer Isles. They have been building up our base and preparing for our arrival for the past 3 years."

Ok that explains Leonna's part in this scheme, which brings me back to my previous question that is still unanswered.

"I was worried that there might be a plot on your lives too. It was after Leonna's rescue I was convinced that our family was being targeted. I always had plans to extend our empire into the Stepstones and further upto the Summer Isles. After these events had occurred I realized that I needed a safe haven other than Dragonstone. The invasion of Stepstones was a curtain to ensure that Leonna and the Templars make it safely to the Summer Isles without the Entity noticing. Do you know how easy it is to stage a shipwreck if you have a large dragon? With the faked deaths of the Templars and Leonna, some of the Lords who were getting antsy at our growing power calmed down assuming I received divine retribution for overreaching. I didn't reveal the truth to either you or Maegor because I knew for sure that if I could hide it from you two then I could hide it from the Entity."

Ah the 'Knights Templar', an order of highly trained knights that Rhaegor created in secret to spite the 'Warrior Sons' of the Faith Militant. Knights who preferred ranged combat was a rarity in Westeros. The arrows and bolts from their weirwood and dragonbone bows and crossbows could punch through regular mail. Only knights with full plates could fend off attacks from the Templars. He unleashed them on the Faith Millitant during the events that led to Father's death and they were directly responsible for suppressing the uprising of the Faith in the Westerlands and Riverlands, while Maegor took care of them in the Crownlands and Reach.

The Lords who saw the Templars in action feared that Rhaegor would use them to usurp their authority. Instead they went around suppressing the Faith Millitant and bandits wherever they went while spreading awareness of Valyrian culture to the smallfolk. The Lords were happy that bandit problems became nonexistent in their demesne and the small folk were happy to learn simple measures practiced by Valyrians that helped reduced diseases significantly. So when Rhaegor 'Lost' about eight tenths of his Templar forces to storms during the invasion of Stepstones the Lords, who were wary of House Targaryen holding such a significant well trained and well supplied force, breathed in relief.

When he announced he wanted to conquer Stepstones I assumed that it was another one of his crazy campaigns and judging by its success I completely missed what was going on hidden from plain sight. Like he said if I missed it, whoever the bastards attacking us also wouldn't have noticed. That reminds me, he still hasn't revealed his plans with the Lord Commander.

"When you gave me complete control over the Silver Hand you promised you wouldn't interfere, so my dear what is with this planning with my Knight Commander that you were doing behind my back?"

"Oh that was just to make sure Dragonstone was defended when I was at King's Landing. Tyrosh has been sending people to kill us for a really long time. When they learnt that ships burn too easily to dragon fire, they started sending in spies and assassins. I thought that the Entity might be trying to screw us there too. We tried to capture and interrogate them but so far we only managed to get the fodder alive, the ones with information killed themselves before they could be captured. So I just alerted the Lord Commander in case they attempt something when I was away. And looks like someone got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. When I go down there I should be able to extract information on the people who sent them and hopefully give us more information about the Entity. Information we desperately need."

"We need to prepare for the Maegor's funeral. I'm going to alert the City Watch so they can prepare for the influx of people. You go down to the dungeons and finish up with the interrogation and once we are back we could make more solid plans for our exile. You brats with me. Aurea and Rhea, go alert Sera Alys and ask her to get the castle prepared for the King's funeral. We will all meet back here in two hours."

I open the door and walk towards the castle entrance closely followed by Sammy and Danny. Cousin Alys Velaryon should be able to get the Castle prepared in time. How did today go so wrong? Rhaegor wasn't the only one too arrogant about out invincibility. I too believed that we Targaryens were unassailable with our dragons and innate bloodline. Dragons can be killed. I guess I got that lesson hammered in good today. We have already lost five members to those scheming bastards. I wonder how Jae and Alys would react to this information.

**Two Hours Later**

I walk into the Solar to see Aurea and Rhaegor animatedly discussing something. After the boys enter I seal the room and we sit around the painted table.

I ask him, "So, what did you find from the prisoners?"

"Dogget is the one behind the recent events. He has been trying to get Tyrosh and Lys to fully commit to disrypting our operations in the Stones. After the Slaughter of Blackwater Rush his wounded pride resorted to attacking us. His charred corpse remains in the now destroyed arena. However we can infer that the River Lords are involved. Aenys fucked up dealing with them. If only he had moved against the Red Harren faster, the fool always believed in the good of people. Another important piece of information I found out is that Pentos is also involved. So yeah we have most of west coast of Essos and Westeros working to undermine us. This is worse than I assumed. The silver lining is they lost total control of the Faith Militant."

"Also I forgot to mention, earlier Balerion in rage after Maegor's death burnt down Visenya's Hill and almost all of the rebel soldier camp. The Arena of Kings and is surroundings were destroyed. In the rebel camp nothing of value was lost as they were the remnants of the Faith Militant idiots in the five kingdoms. I thought he was going to burn down the entirety of King's Landing. Vhagar managed to intervene in time to push him towards the rebel camp. He will probably fly back here to Dragonstone after he calms down a bit. Well, you mother still hates me and Jaehaerys is confused that the uncles that he was raised to hate are supporting his claim for the throne and one died trying to protect him. That is the total summary of today's events."

There is silence in the room and suddenly a thought pops into my head.

"What if we make them assume that the attack on Castle Dragonstone succeeded or partially succeeded."

Rhaegor blinks at me with confused face. I continue, "I'm going to use the same idea you used with Leonna. We fake the deaths of our children and allow them to travel to the Summer Isles hidden. There is not enough time to organize another elaborate curtain to hide our move from the Entity."

"So you would leave Jaehaerys and Alysanne in the hands of these savages after today's events?" he asks with an incredulous look.

"It is exactly because of today's events I made the choice. I love them a lot but if it comes down to a choice between my siblings or my children, it is obvious. You mentioned earlier we need somewhere safer than Dragonstone for our children. You are correct Dragonstone is right now surrounded from all sides by potential enemies. You have already created the perfect place and I don't want to waste those efforts. We fake their deaths and smuggle them to the Summer Isles. I can play the role of a grieving mother in search of revenge. Fly around for a bit and misdirect them and eventually hide with the children."

"We need to be creative, they would be watching us closely and we can't use the same strategy again. We also have to smuggle their four dragons how are we going to manage that?"

I agree and explain my plan to him and the children. The children are excited to participate. After a few minutes of pondering over what I said Rhaegor agrees with my plan.

"This has another merit. We can use it as an excuse to remove our Tyroshi and Lyseni threats. Assassination attempts on princes and princesses no one would care. Assassination of a King followed by another one on four royal children could rile up the entire populace against the foreign threat especially if we portray that they were plotting together with the Faith Millitant."

I smile at him, "Sure, that would unite the Kingdoms under Jaehaerys and give us the cover to slip the children past the watchful eyes without worry."


	3. Act 1 - 3 Knights

**King's Landing 28 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

I fucked up. Else I wouldn't be in the situation right now. The proverb 'Don't build castles in the air' applies to all the plans I made to enjoy a life of debauchery before I'm eventually forced to settle down and marry. It all came crumbling down three years back on the night of Maegor's wedding.

**Flashback - Oldtown 25 AC**

I follow Leonna into her room. I close the door and turn around and look at her standing near the bed like a goddess in the candlelit room. She is looking up at the ceiling and muttering something. Weird, maybe a prayer? She then looks at me and says,

"Black Goku was overhyped."

"Fuck no, he was the best villain in the series if not for the plot hole ending." Came out my reflexive answer after countless hours of trolling forums and arguing with my wife in my previous life.

There was a stunned silence in the room.

"Reny?" There was only one person who used my name in that shortened form.

"Leah?"

Before I could realize I found myself tackled by a golden blur into a hug. I return the hug and we just stand there for a few minutes and let her get it out of her system. After about five minutes she pulls back and starts to speak. I stop her by placing my forefinger on her lips. At the same time bite the tip of my thumb and let a drop of blood fall on the floor. There is a small rush of wind in the room as Leah/Leonna looks at me with a shocked expression.

"You can use magic?" she asks me with a stumped expression.

"Yes, yes I can." I respond with a chuckle and kiss her.

"I knew it. Fuck you Farman." She exclaims with a victorious smirk. Who the fuck is Farman? "So what did you do?"

"It is just a simple spell that makes the air near the walls, roof and floor of the room vibrate to cause destructive interference to the sound waves of our speech. It works for the human vocal range making it a simple and effective spell to guard against eavesdroppers. Let talk about magic later we have a lot of catching up to do."

"Soo what is the last thing you remember?"

"You mean on Earth?" seeing her nod I continue, "Our lab exploding and me trying to shield you, which failed apparently."

"Oh yes, that was cute but I don't remember anything after that either."

"Wow. The fuck did we do that put a hit on us?"

"Was it a hit? I have no fucking clue. Did we have any project that was even remotely close to working?"

I ponder for a bit and try to remember. Some of our sponsors were from the military industrial complex but I don't remember working on anything important enough to get killed over.

"Not that I can remember. Anyway that's over and thinking about it gives me a migraine. We are in fucking 'Game of Thrones' world, what is up with that? What is your story here?"

"Father was killed when I was a baby and as long I could remember Lord Hightower was my foster father. Ceryse is my sister from another mother. Seriously, how the fuck did you get to be a fucking Targ prince and I'm not even of the main Lannister branch? It's not fair." Ah she is pouting. This is adorable.

"You know my luck, but on a serious note you have had easy access to the Citadel being in Hightower and even as a Lannister you would probably be married off for some political gain. I know it sounds weird but this seems like too much of a coincidence."

"Maybe the Gods realized that they fucked up with our deaths in Earth and provided for us to come together in this life too?" She asks me sarcastically.

"Har de har har. Well I can't think of anything else. I have access to the remains of Valyrian archives after the Doom and you had access to the 'Beacon of Westerosi Civilization' though yours seemed like a very convoluted way to give you access. You must have had a fun time requesting stuff from the maesters of the citadel?"

"Initially yes but once I was able to prove to stupid Farman, the castle maester, that I was able to learn what he knew easily, he was able to get me more advanced stuff from the castle archives. As the primary patrons for the Citadel the castle archives are huge and have a significant collection of books and other literature. Even the more esoteric ones that are usually frowned upon by the Andal populace."

Ok that makes sense. "Find anything good? Also how did you guess it was me at the party?"

"First, only an idiot like you would flirt by talking about the compressive, tensile and bending strength of magical stones." Yup hearing about it makes me cringe internally. "Second the concept of Apostles and the unified religious theory don't exist in this world and third your 'otherworldly knowledge' statement"

Ah damn and here I thought I was doing a good job with the charming prince stereotype. Well, you win some and you lose some. She starts pacing around the room.

"First could have been because you were Valyrian and trying to show off. The second and third points proved that you were like me. Considering that we are close in age and knowing that you sucked at flirting even back on Earth I took an educated guess. Also I knew how you would react to the Black Goku statement so all I had to do was get you isolated and ask the question."

I move near the bed and collapse on it. "My mother, knows about me."

"Wait you told her? And still alive?" The fuck is that over reaction for? Why shouldn't I be alive? "Wow the Targs must be rally crazy. You usurp her kid and they let you live?" Ah possession.

"We are not possessing these bodies." I continue to explain the 'Old Soul' concept. "Though it happens only with strong blood lineages. Mother even believes the father of heroes Garth Gardener might have been an Old Soul. It certainly explains that almost all of his kids are celebrated as heroes and have almost impossible accomplishments to their name. You are a descendant of Lann, the Clever so that makes your bloodline pretty strong too."

I see relief flood her face. Guess she was feeling guilty about the whole thing.

"Guess what? That makes Ritter and you very distant cousins." I add chuckling.

"Very funny. I should have known he would make a scene today. He has been stalking Ceryse for two years now."

I start laughing at this revelation. I thought ex-boyfriend but crazy stalker fits even better.

"I assume there is a story here?"

She sits down beside me and starts explaining, "Nothing too big. We ran into him during a trip into the city. He was here to join the Oldtown chapter of Warrior Sons and changed his mind after falling head first in love with Ceryse. He tried a lot of ploys to get close to Ceryse. She treated him like dirt and Lord Hightower saw though his motivations. When the wedding was announced he made a scene and was kicked out. I guess he ran back to the Warrior Sons and we both know what happened after that."

She pours a glass of wine for herself. I need a drink too and proceed to pour a glass for myself.

"So, you learn how to fight?" I ask a probing question.

"Enough to take care of myself. I'm kind of Ceryse's hidden bodyguard."

"Wow, I'm surprised they allowed you to. Andals are completely misogynistic. Aren't they?"

"Oh please, I knew what sort of world we are in. I'm pretty sure anywhere else I would have not been able to. Hightower is probably the only place where I would have gotten away with it. Lord Hightower had been planning for a royal wedding for Ceryse for quite a while. You should already know. He wanted Prince Aenys but he was ready to settle for one of you twins. I just had to put up an innocent act about wanting to 'protect big sister from bad guys of King's Landing'. It took some time but seeing how well I was doing with Farman's lessons he accepted provided that I take the lessons from the Septas seriously too. I had to grind my teeth through it. Some of the stuff taught there almost made me puke. So finally boom personal secret water dancer teacher for last 8 years. So yeah discount Arya Stark?"

I laugh and exclaim, "Oh this is perfect you are going to need all that training when you challenge mother for my hand."

"What makes you think that I want to marry you?" She exclaims in mock outrage. Seriously, we are going to do this?

"Love, 'Till death do us part' only works when said death is permanent. You are stuck with me till we actually are dead for good. Everyone in that hall saw me run after you like a puppy. I'm not my brother but I'm not going to let someone else claim you and in a straight fight I can hold my ground against Maegor. You saw him today. If we add magic I'd say we are dead even."

"Wait that fight was without magic?" Seeing me nod she gets up and starts pacing again muttering something along the lines 'fucking overpowered'.

"Did I say something wrong?" I pour myself another glass of wine. I sense a temper tantrum incoming.

"You don't understand do you? Of course you don't. How do you think a knight like Ritter was allowed in the castle chasing after Ceryse considering he wasn't even from the main branch of the Florents?"

"He was an idiot and you guys needed someone to make fun of?" looking at her scowl I continue "He was good at something?"

"Yes, yes he was. He was one of the best warriors in the castle. He wins tournament melee fights regularly and is usually top four in the jousts."

I did a spit take. What the fuck? That guy? Top warrior? She was kidding right?

"He was soo weak. Are you sure we are talking about the same person?"

She glares at me and starts to explain, "In that duel Maegor moved too fast it was like watching Frieza toying with Vegeta."

"The King, the Prince or the Planet?"

I get a kick to my shin as a response, ouch. "I'm not joking but if you must know final form Frieza on Namek. I assumed magic was involved and my assumption was kind of confirmed when you used magic to seal the room. So you see how it looks to me? One of the best knights of the realm got tossed like a ragdoll by your brother and you say he gets even stronger?"

Duh! Golden Frieza is a thing, but on a serious note I'm confused. So unlocking the bloodline is usually achieved by pushing the body to its physical limits. The resulting effect is increased strength, healing factor and reaction times based on the strength of the bloodline. That's stuff every top warrior of the realm should be able to achieve given they start early with training and manage to push themselves to limits. So shouldn't a top knight like Ritter have his bloodline unlocked? He was a descendant of Floyrs after all and that is a strong lineage.

My training regimen was different to the usual ones as mother as I started to add magical aspect lessons to the training. The previous Targ assumption was that the body might not be able to handle the magic training before the bloodline gets unlocked. It seemed like a no brainer to me and mother was ok with me trying to experiment. The results were good enough that my physical prowess caught up to Maegor in no time and this forced Maegor to join my regimen, who previously showed no interest in the magical side of our lineage. He didn't want to get upstaged by me.

So Leonna's information made no sense. Maegor was not using magic in the fight. From the sidelines it seemed to me like Ritter was exactly as Maegor had taunted, a freshly knighted man who had no experience in fights. It clearly wasn't the case as revealed by Leonna. Two possible answers pop in my head. First is that our dragon bloodline is way stronger than Florys' heroic bloodline. Second is that my new training regimen is a game changer if it gave us such a significant boost on the physical side. First is not likely as Valyrians were ordinary shepherds during the Age of Heroes. Older blood lineages are stronger. We might be strong now, but that is because of our draconic nature and significant efforts into strengthening our lineage. It still isn't enough to cause such a huge disparity. So the second or a combination of both is the most probable answer. This is awesome. Half of my regimen was done in the traditional way only changing it halfway to my hybrid theory. I wonder how much improvement would result if the entire training was hybrid. I should try it on my brother's kids.

I'm brought out of my thoughts by Leonna kicking me in the shin again.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"What were you thinking? You had that smile you get when you want to try a crazy new idea."

Oh Leonna would be a perfect test subject too. She already has years of training. I can test my theory.

"I think I just realized a way to make you stronger."

"You mean like Maegor?" I nod to her question.

"Awesome. Now explain."

"We will have time for that later. Right now how about we continue our dance from where we left off back in the hall?" I ask with a teasing grin and got kicked in the shin again. Ouch.

"Seriously it is just a theory I have and I need to discuss about it with mother."

"Fine keep your secret but tonight you are going to fuck me till I pass out."

"Wow you seem enthusiastic."

"You have no idea how it is to be in a hormonal teenage body again in this ass backwards world as a woman. I need an outlet and I'm going to be using you to vent my sexual frustrations."

I stand up and pull her into a kiss. I pull her gown off her shoulders and let it pool on the floor.

I take a step back to admire her naked body in its glorious display in the candlelight. She pushes me towards the bed and helps me remove my breeches.

She grabs a hold of my half erect cock and starts stroking it while licking the tip. Soon she turns it into a full blowjob. It doesn't take long before I release my seed in her mouth.

I carry her up and lay her on the bed and start sucking on her nipples while playing with her clit with my fingers. Slowly start kissing her body towards her pussy as she starts moaning out loud in pleasure. As soon as my tongue touches her clit she grabs my hair, screams and shudders in pleasure as she reaches her orgasm too.

"Don't hold back I plan on making myself some moon tea tomorrow." She informs me as I align my cock to her now wet pussy.

I push through her tight hole and my cock meets her hymen. I push through and notice her wincing in pain. I let her adjust to my penetration and nibble on her ears. "How does it feel losing your virginity the second time to me?"

She bites my shoulder flips me around and starts riding me slowly. Soon we both reach our orgasms and she collapses. I wait for the refractory period and we start again in doggy style, this time the fucking turns more animalistic. I keep my promise and end up fucking her till she passed out. The night turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

**End Flashback – Back to King's Landing**

So life threw a curveball at my plan in the form of Leonna. I remember a quote "No plan survives first contact with the enemy". My situation is kind of similar and my plan fails. When I told mother that I wanted to help her with her bloodline she was amused as she thought I was smitten and wanted to train her for the duel. She let me experiment with Leonna's training when I explained what I had deduced on that night. Interestingly, Rhaena after her announcement somehow convinced Maegor to train her, probably through my mother. I tried to convince uncle Orys to train my Baratheon nephew Rogar with the hybrid way only to get scoffed at by him. He doesn't like magic so I didn't push the issue there. So I had two scapegoats to test my theory.

My deduction turned out to be correct. The hybrid theory of training both the physical body and the magical energies together increased the physical stats significantly compared to just physical training. It also reduced the time taken to unlock the bloodline by a lot. I was able to get Leonna's bloodline unlocked in just two years after putting her through the training regimen. Of course there were downsides to that too. Permission to start the hybrid training right from the beginning for Rhaena was immediately shot down by mother. She explained that doing so would result in what happened to Aenys. So the training needs a level of physical conditioning before it can be started. No one knew what that level was.

I had four and half years and Maegor had five years of physical conditioning before we started the hybrid training. I had an idea. Aenys' physical condition improved significantly after he bonded with Quicksilver. So before Rhaena's training started I proposed that she hatch an egg and bond with the dragon. She hatched the silver blue drake Dreamfyre and then then started her physical training. We planned on starting her hybrid training after three years. Just a couple of months ago she started the hybrid training regimen and we didn't observe any detriments. So right now based on the data I have, four and half years without a dragon support and three years with dragon support is the earliest we can start without detriments.

I'm going to wait till Rhaena unlocks her bloodline to get more data and then focus on my new nephew Aegon. We wanted to get him bonded to a dragon as soon as possible unfortunately none of the wild hatchling drakes bonded with him. Well we have to wait till he is old enough to hatch his own which is what Aenys preferred too. So going to wait three more years before he becomes my scapegoat.

Anyways right now I'm in my mother's solar in Aegonfort. Aegonfort I think is the precursor to the Red Keep of the show. Father built it as a temporary fortress to stage his conquest from. I'm also standing in front of mother's angry glare because I fucked up.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes mother she had her last moonsblood three months ago. She is carrying my child."

"You are still not marrying her."

Wait what? I'm not letting my kids become bastards. This world is fucked up in its treatment of kids outside marriage.

"What was the condition that you set for your bride?" she scoffed.

"She has to defeat you in single combat." I replied grinding my teeth. Damn my own stupidity coming to bite me in the back.

"Has she done that?"

"No, it is only a matter of time now. She has already unlocked her bloodline."

She starts laughing at my statement. I don't see anything funny. She stops after a few seconds and responds. "Your father has an activated Targaryen bloodline and he still hasn't defeated me in single combat. Your faith in your lover's ability is amusing."

Well fuck. I guess I'm going to have a long talk with Leonna. My mother smirks at me and asks, "So did you realize what you did wrong?"

"I failed to realize that moon tea doesn't work on someone with a strong unlocked bloodline." Increased healing factor means a weak poison like moon tea becomes ineffective. Yeah totally didn't see that one coming.

"Good, but that is still just the half. You also assumed that you could appeal to my sympathies and make me change my mind."

Kind of. I knew that mother is basically a female Tywin Lannister and a badass warrior with a humongous dragon. I thought she might give family an exception for her principles but I guess that is not the case.

"Now what do you plan to do?"

"I'm still going to claim both the mother and child as mine and do everything in my power to ensure that they live a happy life." I respond with a defiant answer.

"Good, I expect no less from my son."

Huh? I'm a bit confused. She just told me I can't marry her but happy that will still pursue her? Not really making sense here mother.

"Your children from that Lannister girl will still be my grandchildren. They will receive the same benefits as the other royal grandchildren in education and comfort. They however will not be allowed to bond to a dragon. They will not be members of House Targaryen. The Andals' view of bastards and our view are different. You should know that your uncle Orys was my bastard brother but he received every comfort we received. He eventually even formed his own house. Now if that girl does manage to defeat me none of this matters. She will be your lawful wife and your children from her will be Targaryens whether they were born before or after your wedding."

Huh? That is a weird curveball. I should have realized it would be like this. I knew uncle Orys' story. Just didn't think about it in the heat of the moment.

"You have been hiding something from me since Maegor's wedding. I believe you have your reasons for doing this. Just know that no matter what you can always come to me for counsel."

Damn how does she keep doing this? "Yes mother, I'm aware. It is not just my secret to share. That is the reason I still haven't talked to you about it."

"I see." She responds and then pulls a stack of parchments and pushes it towards me.

She continues, "Your father and I looked through your proposals for the three knight orders and agree all three have their merits and will aid the future of House Targaryen."

Well at least today is not just all bad news. Project Templars is a go.

"I however have an issue with the Order of Knights Templar."

Ah come on. "What is the issue mother?"

She looks at me and scowls, "The Temple of the Dragon Gods? Seriously? I know you want to make fun of the Warrior Sons but I cannot allow this."

"Mother, every living dragon we have can be claimed to be apostles or servants of the Dragon Gods and only they have access to the Temple. The smallfolk would believe that even the Warrior Sons can't oppose that. It is not like I want to go fight the Warrior Sons directly claiming my order is better. Their primary role would be removal of bandits in Crown controlled lands and spreading basic knowledge to the small folk. We can claim it as Valyrian culture and guess what? The smallfolk see us as demigods and our forces educating them on our way of life would make them forever loyal to us."

"How do you plan to appease the lords who will think of this as us trying to usurp their power?"

"Provide their forces free training maybe? Also why are we not allowed to have a force to defend our lands?"

"Our reign is not fully consolidated yet. I don't want us to make waves among the Lords just because you want to spite the Warrior Sons. Having a force that we can deploy to protect our House however is not a bad idea. Drop the religion nonsense. You said we are like demigods to them so let us be the ones they worship instead of nonsense Dragon Gods. You do know that the Dragonriders started it to appease the civilian population right? Spreading the knowledge you mention is also a good plan. Instead of all the crown controlled lands. They will operate only in Dragonstone. I want a complete review every three years on the economic impact they have. If I'm satisfied then they can spread into the Crownlands. They will not operate with their name till we make the decision to expand. They will be trained as Templars but as long as they are operating in Dragonstone they will just be seen as regular knights."

Wow she took my idea and turned it to the Targ secret police. Damn you are a scary woman.

"Ok, I can agree to those conditions. Is there anything else that you need Mother?"

"You are not participating in the tourney tomorrow."

What the fuck? It was supposed to be my grand entrance into the realm's affairs. "Why?"

"We have received word that a new group of bandits are prowling near Rosby. Lord Commander Corlys had a group of knights put together to suppress them. You will join them and make sure our side has minimal losses."

Wait this doesn't seem like a last minute development. She has been planning this for a while.

"You want me to get knighted in battle?"

She smiles at me, "Correct and both your father and I agree it is not a good idea to let both you and Maegor fight each other in the open. Not till you both activate your bloodline. You will get knighted in battle and Maegor will be knighted after a tournament victory."

Makes sense from a political and tactical viewpoint. Missing the tournament is going to suck. Maegor already has ladies everywhere swooning over him. This will only make it worse. I get to keep being the mystery prince I guess.

"Alright then I should leave and start preparing for tomorrow. Goodbye Mother."

She just nods and goes back to her paperwork.

**2 Days Later**

I feel miserable. I'm currently puking out whatever I ate when we made camp. Battlefields suck. I'm covered in blood and mud and I stink which makes me puke more. Ser Corlys Velaryon passes me a wineskin filled with water when I'm done.

"So today was your first real kill. How does it feel Your Grace?"

"Can we please not talk about it? I don't want to puke out this water too."

He chuckles, "Of course. I suggest you clean yourself before you eat anything."

I clean up as best as I can and move towards the group of four preparing the horses.

Once I get close Corlys exclaims "Kneel"

Oh well this is happening. I drop to one knee.

"Rhaegor Targaryen, do you swear before the eyes of gods and men to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to protect all women and children, to obey your captains, your liege lord, and your king, to fight bravely when needed and do such other tasks as are laid upon you, however hard or humble or dangerous they may be?"

The fuck? Didn't the knighting ceremony have different words used in the show?

"Yes I do Ser Corlys." I respond.

"Then arise Ser Rhaegor Targaryen."

I get up to the cheer of the rest of the group.

"I was impressed, Your Grace. In this rain you managed to hit all your targets with your crossbow and seeing you fight with your daggers seemed like you were the Warrior reborn," another older knight Ser Hugh Rosby slapped my back. "It seems the Queen's faith in your skill was not misplaced."

"Why were the words used in the knighting ceremony different?" I ask the group of four knights.

"These are the words used when a squire is knighted in battle, Your Grace," responds Ser Corlys.

The bandits were nothing extraordinary but the kicker was the four knights who accompanied me were on watch duty. They were to watch me suppress them and only interfere if my life was in danger. It was the first time I had actually killed someone. I know that they needed to be killed. Delivering the killing blow by myself was a different experience. The reason I puked was not because I had to kill it was because of all the nonsense I got covered in after the battle. I guess I have adapted to Murder-Death-Kill world. I wonder if mother sent me here to test me for this.

"Are we heading to Rosby or King's Landing?" I ask the group.

"We stay the night in Rosby and leave early morning back to King's Landing, Your Grace"

"Thank you, Ser Hugh"

Well I guess preparations were already made. Leonna is probably going to make fun of this entire affair.


	4. Act 1 - 4 Things we do for Love

**Dragonstone 36 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

The Conquest changed the entire dynamics of Westeros. The change was big enough the maesters of the Citadel marked it as the beginning of a new calender era. So this year is currently 36 AC or After Conquest. Right now I think I'm going to name this year 'Year of Rhaegor's Headaches'. Being a Knight and a Prince I have a lot of responsibilities which was further increased by my mother's PR campaign. The story of my Knighting was twisted and mutated into something out of a cheesy anime. I apparently saw the suffering of smallfolk in the hands of bandits and in rage rushed in to battle leaving the squad of knights accompanying me behind and dealt with the bandits all by myself. Right now my nick name is 'Bandit Scourge'. Leonna was reduced to a fit of laughter on hearing the name. She claimed that I deserved such a cheesy title for being an idiot. The year after my knighting Leonna gave birth to two beautiful babies, Leoric and Artemis. I know babies look like potatoes but when they are yours it becomes a totally different feeling. One year after their birth Maegor and I were able to activate our bloodline with mother's help.

Activated bloodline is basically the state where our bodies are trained to the point that we can actively use our blood's magic energy to augment ourselves in regular combat. While it is possible to augment combat with magic in the unlocked state, it consumes too much out of us making it viable only for quick fights. In the activated state we can use it as long as our physical stamina lasts. The most important part of the effort requires a blood ritual to be performed by someone who has already reached that stage. It is similar to multi-classing into a racial class from a base warrior class. It defines how we specialize in combat and skills. Within that area of specialization we can freely use magic. With our draconic bloodline we have a few options to choose from.

Mother's specialization helped augment her speed and agility in combat becoming an evasive fighter with endurance to be able to tank a few hits. You can't defeat her if you can't land a blow on her strong enough to break through her guard. Father's was balanced in offence and defense as he was a power and endurance based fighter. Helps him tank blows and hit really hard. It explained why he was never able to defeat mother. He wasn't fast enough to hit her and she was able to break through his endurance. Aunt Rhaenys was a ramp up style fighter the longer she is in battle the stronger and faster she becomes. Down side is early in combat she is much weaker. Grandfather Aerion and uncle Orys were berserker style battle maniacs who thrived in combat. As long as they have adrenaline pumping they will keep fighting being able to brush off battlefield injuries to a considerable extent.

Maegor's specialization combined the berserker style of uncle Orys with Aunt Rhaenys's ramp up style. He can tank a lot of hits and can fight through the pain and once he starts ramping up you either outlast him or lose. My specialization combines mother's speed-based style with high level of spatial awareness. My guess is my excessive paranoia about the Murder-Death-Kill world helped me develop this skill. I am aware of all movement within a sphere of 100 meters radius with me at the center. When in battle I can focus to increase the range or increase the effect to read even muscle twitches so that I can predict my opponents' next move with ease. Combat precognition is so fucking awesome and I'm fast and strong enough to react to it. The effects of these skills also increase with further training.

So, what did I do after activating my bloodline? Bandit hunting. Lots and lots bandit hunting to give justice to my nickname. Pretty much the entirety of the small folk in the crown-controlled lands sing praises of Prince Rhaegor, The Bandit Scourge. Maegor wasn't allowed to goof off either he was made to go pirate hunting with the Master of Ships, Lord Velaryon in the Stepstones. He was able to drive out the pirate king twice from the island chain but failed to capture or kill him. Unfortunately, he didn't get a stupid nickname for me to laugh at. Although, he used it as an excuse to dump Rhaena's training on mother and me.

**Flashback - Dragonstone 30 AC**

I hear Rhaena yelling at Maegor as I am trying to get some beauty sleep. Time to go see what the idiots are up to and try to put an end to it before Maegor loses his temper. As I enter the hall, I see mother already there watching the two squabble with an amused expression.

"…supposed to get to that level?" Rhaena asks Maegor.

"What the hell are you two yelling about?" I ask with a yawn. "Some people are still sleeping in the castle." I hope the kids don't wake up from this. That is going to make Leonna grumpy for the rest of the day.

"He is leaving again. How is he supposed to train me if he won't stay here or take me with him?" Rhaena explodes in outrage.

Oh, this is about training. Of course, it is. I thought Maegor was the only training nut in the family apart from me, but I was proven wrong by the progress Rhaena has made in these five years of training. She is very close to unlocking her bloodline and will do so within the next year or two.

"It is enough that I hear your annoying voice when I'm home, I don't what it to come with me when I'm going on an expedition too," responds Maegor as he takes a seat in one of the chairs.

"You know, you could train under your grandmother too. She is the one who taught us everything." I suggest offering a truce.

"That is what I have been doing whenever this idiot is not at home. I'm training to defeat her, and It feels weird training under her. Feels like cheating," grumbles Rhaena and starts looking at me hopefully.

Oh, I know where this is going and hastily try to deflect. "Well I can't help you much there. I'm already working with Leonna and helping her out."

"If that is the case you are going to have no issues in training her, Your Grace." I turn around to see Ceryse and Leonna who just walked into the room and Leonna sporting a smirk, traitor. "The kids at the stage that will require a lot of my attention on them so you will have plenty of time."

"I don't want you to train me. I want you to convince him to take me with him." Oh boy that blow to my pride stings. The ladies all burst out laughing at my expense.

"And why not?" I'm not letting this go.

"Meagor is better than you." She states it in a very matter of fact way.

This little shit is really getting on my nerves.

"Is he now?" I ask with a scowl.

"She is not wrong." Maegor responds with a smirk.

"Alright, training yard right now. First one to land a strike is the winner and is the better fighter. What do you say little drake?" I ask Rhaena.

"Of course. Maegor you have been challenged. You need to prove that you are worthy to remain my instructor." She points to Maegor and issues the challenge. It looks like the little shit is determined to piss off both of us today.

Maegor scowls at me and responds, "Fine. Been a while since we had a good duel. Let's see how much you have improved."

We move to the training yard. After a bit of stretching we are both ready.

Mother repeats the rules, "Bout to first contact. Allowable targets arms and legs. Any other hit will be a loss."

As we are not wearing armor, I wouldn't want to hit the torso or head either.

"No magic either, just a simple and clean fight." Ok that changes the dynamics of the fight a bit. I see Maegor picking up a training longsword and a heater shield. If he is going to turtle up, I'm going to go full offense, dual wield it is. I pick up two arming swords as we get ready in our stances. Looks like I will have to pull him out of the shell.

I start the fight by charging a thrust at his shoulder which he parries with the shield. I quickly follow it with a slash aiming for his sword arm with my second blade. He parries it with his sword and blocks my following flurry of three slashes with his shield. The last one sets me off balance a bit and he uses it as an opportunity to thrust towards my shoulder. I parry it and take a step back to regain my balance. He follows me and fakes a downwards slash making me side step where he bashes me with his shield. I fall and roll backwards to get some distance between us and regain my footing. I need to take that shield out of the equation else he will just wear me down. He charges at me aiming a thrust and I do the same. I parry his sword and as he attempts to parry my sword with his shield, I side step and turn my thrust into a slash on the shield itself. The sword gets stuck in the shield as the wood cracks. There goes the shield but also one of my swords. We both drop the weapons instead of playing tug of war.

Right now it is arming sword versus a longsword and my speed versus his reach. Maegor charges at me with a thrust at my shoulder. I duck to dodge it and counter thrust towards his legs. He sidesteps and attempts a downward slash swinging towards my shoulder. I sidestep and swing horizontally. He parries it with his sword and tries to hit my forearm. I parry it and aim another slash at his shoulder before he could recover. He dodges it with a sidestep and thrust towards my arms. I parry and aim a thrust at his shoulder. He parries and before he could recover, I attempt to sweep his legs. He jumps and dodges when I attempt to slash his legs while he is on his way down. He manages to parry it, but he is off balance. I manage to nick his forearm before he could recover, and mother calls the match.

"Nicely done," Maegor grins at me and gives me a hug. "Now you can deal with that little shit. Thank you, brother." He whispers giving me a pat on my back leaving me stunned for a moment.

Fuck, he set me up. The ladies start moving back to the castle discussing about breakfast while Rhaena comes over to me and announces in her usual boisterous manner, "You have proven your worth to be my instructor, I shall allow you to be my sworn shield and my trainer in combat." Before I could say anything, she runs off with the other ladies. Maegor drops the training swords in the stand and gives me a smug look while pulling the sword out of the shield.

"Don't tell me you threw the fight." We start walking towards the caste too.

"Hells no. That was a good spar. You do realize you are as fast as mother when she fights right? There was no way I would win a fight to first contact unless you make a big mistake and you didn't. I just used your challenge to get Rhaena off my hands."

I sigh, "With you off to the Stepstones I guess it would be prudent for me to take the slack in her training."

"Don't fret. My style is not suited for her so mother has been taking an active role in her training. So, I really don't see a down side other than putting up with her annoyance."

"If she can combine mother's and yours, she would be a monster in combat." I ponder.

"Correct, your style was built based on mother's. So, she will have an idea on how to build on it if you help her out a bit."

"Hope you kill the pirate king this time. So, I can have a stupid nick name to call you with."

"I hope so too Ser Bandit Scourge." He added with a smirk.

"Sometimes I really wish that I was in the tourney and you went to kill those bandits. Even if you kill Saan you will probably be called Pirate Bane or something. It sounds way better." I grumble.

**End of Flashback – Back to Dragonstone 36 AC**

As predicted Rhaena unlocked her bloodline one year after she started training with mother and me. I also had two new nephews Viserys and Jaehaerys, and I was about to be thwarted in my attempt to experiment my dragon support theory when Aenys declared that they too would hatch their own dragon. Rhaena decided that she would choose their dragons and placed a dragon egg in their cribs. Aegon didn't want to hatch a dragon as he wanted 'A big dragon' and not a small one. Aenys was understandably annoyed at that choice. Aegon joined my test subjects as one who didn't have dragon support. We started his hybrid training after four years of physical conditioning. Viserys hatched a bluish-black drake called Bluefyre when he was two namedays old, he however had no interest in magic and therefore was assigned to pure physical conditioning with dragon support.

Jaehaerys' egg hatched when Jaehaerys was one nameday old and the new bronze drake Vermithor was born. I was excited as among the younger generation he was the youngest to bond to a dragon and had the potential to start hybrid training the earliest.

My kids were doing well in their education and they started training when they were about six namedays old. I was not able to convince Leonna to start before that. I started at four and half ish and turned out to be perfectly fine. Apparently, she had better standards of motherhood than 'The Colossal Bitch', the nickname she uses endearingly on my mother.

Leonna also earned her knighthood as the first female knight in Westeros. Sera Leonna Lannister, Grand Master of the Order of Hospitaliers. I founded the Hospitaliers as an auxillary order of knights who deal with health care. Basically my version of Paladins, doctors during peace time and combat medics during war. Of course being in Westeros there were a lot of Lords who took offence to knighting a woman. Lord Hightower however was very proud of her, mainly because she essentially became my wife in everything except name. He threw a big tourney in honor of this. Leonna won the joust pretty easily and silenced all the Lords grumbling for breaking tradition. She still maintained her position as Ceryse's guard but not as hidden as before as it was obvious to everyone that she can fight.

The Hospitaliers welcomed all sorts of young healers from around the world including maester acolytes who had crafter their silver chain. They were all given basic combat and survival training before they took an oath of loyalty to the Grand Master of the Order. Leonna also created a new curriculum for the initiates to learn from by combining all non-magical healing resources she could get her hands on and building upon her previous life knowledge. Only on completion they were given knighthood. They were the smallest of my three orders as recruitment was strict and initiates usually took two to three years to complete the curriculum. Right now their strength is five Paladins and around twelve initiates.

Right now Leonna is in my mother's chambers tending to a broken arm caused by the culprit standing in front of me. I was in the port city of Dragonsurf when Vhagar'r roar echoed though the city. I realized something was going on in the Castle and rode back to find a furious Maegor yelling at Rhaena. Apparently she challenged mother to a duel for her title and ended up breaking mother's arm. Also she was supposed to be in Driftmark with Aenys and Alyssa. What was going on?

"How is mother doing?" I ask the two.

"Leonna is in her chambers working on it." Came the response from Maegor. "Looked like a simple break. She is not going to be using her left arm for a while."

I wince at that statement. Rhaena is on the verge of tears. I feel like anything I say could be mistaken by either of them so I remain silent waiting for Leonna. After a few minutes Leonna comes out saying, "The Queen wants to talk to Rhaegor alone first. Rhaena dear we have stuff to discuss too. We will be in my study. Join us when you are done talking to the Queen."

"What about me?" asks Maegor

"She said she will talk to you after Rhaegor." Maegor gives her a nod. Rhaena follows her and they start walking towards her study.

I walk in to the room and seal it. Mother is sitting on the bed. Her arm drawn on a sling. "Take a seat. Your lover is quite the skilled healer looks like her skills from her previous life is not wasted here. Or should I say wife?"

I sit on the chair stunned by the news. Ok so Leonna told her about us. Wunderbar!

"She finally found the courage to talk to you about it I guess."

"She had a reason to find her courage. I will be honest. When you mentioned it was not just your secret to share I didn't expect this. Do you know why Rhaena challenged me today?"

"No. The news was a surprise to me. Didn't Aenys say something about arranging a betrothal between Aegon and her? I assumed she would be busy with all the preparations for that ball."

"She doesn't want to marry Aegon. She didn't just challenge me for the title." I don't like where this is going. "She answered the challenge you put out thirteen years ago"

FUCK MY LIFE. So that's why Leonna revealed the truth.

"Why, what changed now?"

She sighs and continues, "For someone that is highly perceptive, you have very obvious blind spots. She has always adored you. Her antics with Maegor were her childish attempts to get your attention. Of course you were totally oblivious and now I don't blame you. If I didn't know the relationship between Leonna and you I would have assumed you were an idiot."

"Wait, you mean what happened on her nameday was intentional?"

She threw a pillow at me and snarled, "Don't you slander her. That was an accident, but deep in her mind you were her safe place. She sought you for help and we all know how that ended."

Oh my god. This is so fucked up. Ah yes the events of Rhaena's sixteenth nameday. My greatest shame.

**Flashback – Dragonstone 3 months back**

I wake up with a headache that reeks of a hangover. Wait I can't get drunk. I shouldn't have a hangover. I feel a warm body near me and I hope she wakes up soon because she must have some medicine for this headache. I get up from bed and open the curtains and turn around to realize the woman in my bed is not Leonna but Rhaena. Holy shit! What the fuck happened last night? Why don't I remember anything? I panic and check the sheets to make sure that I didn't do anything stupid while blackout drunk. I see specks of blood and I realize that this is totally fucked up. I slept with my own neice in my drunken stupor.

I hear yelling outside. I dress up quickly to go check what is going on.

"…and you left it lying around in the reach of servants? Are you an idiot?" I hear father's voice

Well this is not good. I reach the hall to see Maegor being yelled at by both father and mother. Wow it has been a while since I saw this scene.

"What is going on? Stop yelling, makes this headache worse." I exclaim.

"You have your brother to thank that for," replies my mother. Seeing my incredulous look, "He has been experimenting with strong wines to be able to make us drunk and he left one of his batches where servants has access to. We all drank that last night."

Everything makes sense. I start to wonder how he achieved it and then fury takes over and I charge and punch straight in the jaw. "You dumb idiot do you have any idea what you have caused?" I yell in rage.

Father and Mother look stunned. "That is an overreaction," said my father.

"Not if you found out that you slept with your niece because your brother left experimental wine out in the open."

Maegor looks at me, gulps and responds, "The servants weren't supposed to check that room. Do you know who served it?"

"No one is going to accept blame you dumbass."

The door opens and Rhaena walks in with tears in her eyes. Mother rushes to her and pulls her into a hug.

I realize that our voices are audible on the outside and I immediately seal the room. The plus side is only the five of us have activated bloodlines so we awoke from the stupor faster than others.

"Rhaena, I'm sorry." I somehow manage to get the words out.

Father pinches the bridge of his nose and says, "We can't afford for this news to get out." I'm pretty sure some of the servants heard that but they have all sworn blood oaths to our family so no worries there.

"Are you hurt," mother asks Rhaena to which she nods no.

"Rhaena, Visenya you are both going to Driftmark when the rest of them leave. Rhaena needs a place to heal away from this castle. Visenya stay there as long as you need to, you can give them the reason that you are letting the boys learn to handle the administration while the court gets moved. The boys can handle affairs here." Saying that father pours himself a glass of water.

Mother nods and leaves with Rhaena leaving us three in the hall. "Send Leonna to the solar after she wakes up. I'm going to need something for this headache," I nod at him and he leaves after a few moments of silence.

I drink a glass of water myself and wait for my dumbass brother to say something.

"Sorry."

"You are an idiot"

"I know. When I find who served the wine I'm going to kill him ripping him limbs off him."

"It must have been an honest mistake. They are blood sworn to us." We both sit down on the chairs.

"I don't know how I can ever face Rhaena in the eye anymore."

"She will kick you in the face if you keep sulking. So why were you doing it?"

"Ceryse is barren. I want children of my own too. I can't even ask for annulment, political nonsense. I wanted to drink my sorrows away to realize I can't do that either. Made some batches to see if it would work. Apparently it works too well."

"You know the method you are using can be used to kill us right? If used correctly on a poison."

"Wow I didn't even think about it."

"Of course not. That is why you are an idiot." After a few moments of pause I continue, "No matter what, we stick together. I don't think an annulment is the solution to your problem, you love her too much and you would never go through it. What do you think about just marrying another woman like father?"

"Will he accept?"

"There is no harm in asking. I'm sure he wants grandchildren from you too."

**End Flashback – Back to Present**

"I should go talk to them."

I had already told Leonna about the incident and earning her fury. I was glad she was a one of the victims of the wine and she knew I was speaking the truth else she would have probably killed me. She was supposed to come to my room that night and by chance chose to stay with the children. Her punishment to me was withholding sex for two months.

Mother nods. I walk out and tell Maegor that she is free. Then start moving towards Leonna's study.

I knock on the door and wait a few moments before Leonna opens it.

"That was quick," Leonna quipped as I walk in and seal the room again.

"She told me the crux of the matter and I realized that the situation was way more fucked up than I realized." Turning to Rhaena I continue, "I honestly never knew you had feelings for me beyond our family bond. You know you could have won the duel anytime since you activated. Why wait for five months till now?"

"What did the Queen tell you?" Leonna asked from the side.

"That she didn't want to marry Aegon and wanted to marry me and used the challenge to meet both ends."

"I'm carrying your child," responded Rhaena

And it gets worse, well things start to make sense even though it is fucked up. I'm drawing a blank with no idea on what to do.

"How?" I gawk like an idiot.

"When you have unprotected sex, babies are created. Idiot. I would have given her my contraceptives if she stayed here or if you told me about the incident before she left. I knew this would be a possibility but unfortunately the King's gag order prevented me from doing anything." Leonna explains after smacking me over the head.

"I didn't want to come between you two. That is why I buried my feelings and chose to stay away. I found out yesterday that I'm carrying your child and when it is a choice between Leonna's or my child's future I will choose my child." Rhaena gave me an answer to my earlier question.

I wonder how easy it would be blame someone for this and run away from all this and all my responsibilities. Fortunately, I'm a bit thick skinned when it comes to family and can take a bit of abuse.

"Well, how are we going to do this? I will accept whatever decision you two agree on. Even if you two want my head for this stupidity." I throw the ball in their court and wait for the verdict.

"You are of course going to marry her. Your head wont even make a good decorative piece for my shelves. You can keep it yourself. Rhaena and I will have to talk over this in detail but right now we have to sort of the important details. Also just because you are marrying her doesn't mean you are free of me. I claimed you first, 'Till death do us part'."

"You married her?" Rhaena asks in surprise.

"Not an official Westerosi wedding but yes. However you will become my official first wife according to Westerosi traditions. Wow I just realized, Alyssa is going to kill me." I cringe as I think about the expected reaction from Rhaena's mother.

"Father is also going to be upset, as he was getting quite excited about the betrothal." Rhaena adds not helping me in the situation at all.

Oh, right Aenys' succession dilemma.

"I will give up all claims to the Iron Throne for me and my children." I inform the two.

"Why?" Rhaena asks me with a puzzled look.

"The idea of betrothal with Aegon came up when Aenys and I were talking about potential succession issues for the Iron Throne. He proposed it to secure his line and prevent further problems with the Lords of the realm with a female heir. So, if I remove myself and my children from the line it makes Aegon's path clear. This condition is not debatable as I don't want problems with royal succession down the line. I also intend to make it clear that this is only for the current realm. In case I capture Dorne or Stepstones or lands in Essos those would still be my claim and not part of the six kingdoms or the Iron Throne."

Rhaena frowns and replies after pondering for a while. "I lose my birthright but instead gain you and from what you just said do you have plans for expanding the realm beyond its current reach?"

"Not right now but that doesn't mean it will remain the same. I might be the prince without responsibilities, but I do intend to leave a legacy behind for my children from the both of you."

"Good. I'm giving up the Iron Throne so better make it worth my while," responds Rhaena in her typical boisterous voice. It has indeed been a while since I saw this side of her recently.

"Good, now get out of my study we have a lot of stuff to decide and discuss and I don't want you around for it," says Leonna as she shoves me out of the room.

I'm forced to leave and I walk back towards mother's room. The entire chain of events went too smoothly. Mother must have pulled some strings to make sure it did. The door is open and Maegor is still inside but he looks to have calmed down. I knock and walk in.

Maegor looks at me and smirks, "This is fantastic news, the wild prince has finally been tamed. Congratulations are in order brother."

"Dude don't make me punch you again. By the way mother I don't know how you did it but I'm pretty sure you managed to save my life from Leonna."

"Oh I just promised that Artemis would be betrothed to Viserys and later wed if they are willing and Leoric can have his choice in the woman he wants to wed, even Targaryen." She replies while reading something, probably castle reports.

Well that does indeed sound like good options. I wish they had dragons but at least their kids will. I guess Leonna saw that as a win considering the situation.

"Are the ladies deciding how they are going to split you? My suggestion would be vertically." Maegor comments from the side.

I glare at him, "You really are looking for that punch aren't you?"

"Come on, don't you remember how much fun you and Aenys had at my expense before my wedding. It is only natural to be able to take what you give." He responds with a smug smile.

Ok he has a point there. I just hope that Aenys and Alyssa don't go complete bonkers and attempt to kill me. If I can survive those two I'm safe.

"What about Father?" I ask.

"I sent a falcon to Aegon explaining the events. I should get a reply back from him by sun down," comes a response from mother, as she puts away her parchments. "I'm going to sleep for a while. I'm sure I can trust you both not to blow up the castle in case you start fighting."

Maegor left the room saying, "I need to finish the plans for the new fortress. So you have fun with your ladies."

Maegor is a gifted architect. Father burned down Aegonfort to build a bigger and more durable fortress. I prophesize that it shall be named 'Red Keep'. I only have meta knowledge from hundreds of years in the future. So Maegor is in charge of its construction. It's weird that my brothers in both lives were architects. Father also decided to move the royal court to Dragonstone till the new fortress is complete. That is an ongoing process.

My mother was not fond of maesters. She kicked out the maester at Dragonstone sometime soon after the conquest. Her reason was "Men who claim to work for the good of everyone only work for themselves". King's Landing still has the Grand Maester. I thought they were the men of science of Westeros but they did some weird stuff too. There was no other way to explain how they trained ravens to deliver messages with such pin point accuracy. The ravens themselves were stronger faster and seemed to have unlimited stamina. They made their delivery trips without stops even for long distances. Explains the bullshit travel times in season seven. They were also as loyal as domestic dogs. Unfortunately they still had the life span of a regular ravens which is about ten years. Could be an alchemical process or just enhanced with magical rituals. The three eyed raven was able to control a flock of ravens in the show and my guess is the maester's ravenry is based off that magic. So after the maester left we had no new ravens trained. Mother decided that if the 'Grey Rats' could use magic to train ravens to deliver messages she could do better.

I gave her a suggestion that birds of prey have double to triple the lifespan and have significantly faster dive speeds and flat speeds compared to ravens. So if we could replicate the same magic on these birds we will get much faster birds that also live longer. Since they are birds of prey they could also be used as counter intelligence units during war to hunt ravens flying messages. So we experimented with magic, mainly mother and after a lot of dead hawks, falcons and eagles, we succeed. Eagles carry heavier but slower loads and falcons for fast light messages. Hawks were trained to hunt ravens and bring their messages back to us. Apparently we managed to piss off the Grand Master and he refused to work with these abominations. So we have a dedicated knight experienced in falconry assigned to handle these birds in King's Landing.

**Three weeks later**

Well things could have gone better but I'm still alive. That means Alyssa didn't go off the rails and try to kill me but I still got slapped multiple times. I was wearing her hand prints on my face for about half a day. Aenys was annoyed at the series of events and irritated that we hid the incident from him. Hey father issued the gag order not me. After hearing my solution to the succession issue he actually was happy and said that he couldn't have found a better match for Rhaena even if he tried. It ended up pissing off Alyssa even more and I got slapped again. My goal was to stay alive with all my body parts intact and I managed to pull it off.

The news was sent out that 'The Wild Prince' had been claimed. I really didn't know that I had such an awesome nickname among the ladies. The new High Septon was a dick and refused to officiate the wedding as it was an act of 'blasphemy'. The Hightowers and Lannisters were pissed as they had assumed that Leonna would be the one I would marry. The Hightowers are going to be even more pissed off when Maegor pushes for his second wedding. The other Lords were on both sides of the spectrum. So after a lot of 'blah blah incest, blah blah heretic, and other blah blahs' I finally got my wish. A small wedding officiated by father with only family, friends and security present.

Right now I'm standing in my weirwood grove along with family and friends waiting for my bride in a temporary altar. When I was about twelve years old I found out that weirwood is the dragonbone equivalent of wood and we can just grow it. I tried to get as much information about it but the maesters had no idea or refused to share. I managed to find information about the trees in the Hightower archives. The trees required blood sacrifice to grow and are basically all magically networked in the mainland of Westeros and some islands. The Andals when they invaded destroyed most of these wonderful trees except in a few places. The Isle of many faces in God's Eye is one of them. If I remember right the North also has a lot of these magical trees too. Dragonstone didn't have any as the island was cut off from their network by the underlying draconic magic. I wanted them as they would make excellent material to make bows, crossbows sword hilts and in general they are a source of excellent magical timber.

None of us knew how to make them grow in Dragonstone so we chose the next best option Driftmark. Aenys was intrigued by the idea and convinced Lord Velaryon to give me some area on the island to carry my experiments on the trees. So I managed to get a few trees transplanted from the God's Eye to Driftmark. Apparently the locals of God's Eye were happy to know that we were spreading the trees and even helped pick out trees that would survive the journey. Right now I have an entire grove of these trees. Criminals scheduled for execution were brought here and their blood was used as sacrifice for the trees. However I didn't like the idea that the network of these trees are connected to greensight and the three eyed raven. I'm providing them extra footage and my paranoia screams at me to kill it with fire. I'm still working on the process, so far I have only managed to block the network for about an hour before a blood ritual has to be performed again.

Only Leonna could come with such a ludicrous wedding idea. There are also five dragons surrounding us Balerion, Vhagar, Quicksilver, Dreamfyre and Bluefyre. So theoretically my wedding is taking place under the blessing of the Dragon Gods the Old Gods, though the latter's connection has been temporarily disconnected.

As Rhaena walks in she looks like an angel with a white and red gown. We say our vows and I kiss her.

We move to castle Driftmark for the feast. It turned out to be a mundane affair and the evening ended peacefully. So based only on my experience from Aenys' and my wedding I'm starting to believe that Driftmark would be a great place to have weddings. I'm definitely avoiding the Reach, Riverlands and Crownlands and of course Dorne because fuck Dorne.

I survived my wedding in the Murder-Death-Kill world.

**Dragonstone 48 AC**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

I make sure the children are asleep and move towards Rhaegor and my personal chambers. At least there is some good news today. As I enter, I see him pondering over some scrolls.

"What are you looking for?"

"Something that might let me use magic on the poison in my body without it's downsides. Like Rhea mentioned, right now it would result in me ending up losing my mind and maybe extend my life for a couple of years before my body fully breaks apart. I don't really want to live a life like that. If I can find a way to contain the poison without degrading my body and my mind, I might be able to make it to Summer Isles with you. Once there I'm sure Leonna would find something to fix me eventually."

Looks like he has not given up. That is good news but still doesn't fix the problem. "Without neutralizing the poison, you won't survive the trip."

He sighs. "I'm aware. It all comes down to one thing. I don't have time."

I have a sudden idea. "Can we use the stasis spell?" I realize my mistake as soon as I mention it aloud.

He starts laughing. I aim a kick at his legs.

"Ouch. What was that for?"

"Because I was trying to help, and you were being a prick." I say aiming another kick.

"Stop kicking me. If you have any other ideas that wouldn't instantly kill me. I'm all ears"

I scowl and kick him once more for good measure and go sit down on the bed. Leonna might have been able to help if she was here. Now that is not even an option thanks to his 'brilliant' plan. Wait a minute, "Leonna is an Old Soul, isn't she?" I ask after my realization.

"Yes. How did you find out?" He asks me with an amused expression.

"First, she knew way too much about healing than even the Grand Maester before the Hospitaliers and Paladins were even formed, and she was able to create miracle cures for almost any condition. I just initially thought that she worked more on the healing arts compared to training like us but after she activated her bloodline, I assumed she was just as talented in both aspects. Second, you two had a weird way of talking to each other that I assumed was because of the time you spent with each other. Finally, you both were the only ones who never looked down on me just because I'm not a man."

"You remember how I told you that we married but not in Westerosi tradition?"

"Yes." Yes, that was also something weird.

"It is because we didn't marry in this life. She was my wife in my previous life." He responds with a smile.

Well that explains a lot more of their weird antics. Oh dear, Queen Visenya had to have known about this and that is fucked up. I start breathing fast. I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright? You looked like you were going in to a panic attack."

I manage to calm down. "I'm fine but there is something that you should know."

"What is it?"

"The Queen was the one who spiked our wine during my nameday celebration."

He looks at me with a bemused smile and asks, "That is a serious accusation. Why would she even do something like that?"

"She wanted you to marry me. I loved you and I was ready to defeat her, and I wasn't doing it because of Leonna. She manipulated the events of that night and made sure Leonna stayed with the twins and I found my way towards your chambers."

He starts pacing around the room in fury. He is pissed and he has every right to be.

"How did you find out? I'm sure you weren't involved with her."

"NO. I would have never done that to Leonna. She apologized to me on her deathbed after she apologized to Leonna. Did she know about you and Leonna?"

"No. She found about it after the challenge was done. Still doesn't make what she did forgivable. She really was a colossal bitch and where was the fucking apology to me?" He replies with his voice raising.

Ah Leonna's favorite nickname for the Queen. He sits down and starts laughing. Oh dear, that sounds hysterical.

"We were all pawns in her game to improve our House's power. I just happen to have the perfect way to have my revenge on my dear mother. Because fuck this House, and everyone can go suck a dick."

Please don't do anything stupid. Please don't do anything stupid.

"When you leave, you are going to take a couple of shiny dragon eggs for Leoric and Artemis. No make it three just in case as a backup." He announces with his usual smug smile.

I can do that, also now would be the perfect time for me to break the other news that I originally wanted to tell him.

"We would need two more eggs."

"Wait why?" he asks confused.

"I'm pregnant. I just confirmed with cousin Alys."

He lets out a loud cheer and I find myself in a hug and lifted into the air.

"Put me down you idiot." I yell in panic. He lets me down and kisses me.

"Dreamfyre had laid a couple of eggs earlier this month and I still haven't reported it. I'm going to use them for our next pair. Wait don't try to deny it. With your history I know I'm going to have twins again. However, stealing three eggs for Leonna's twins is going to ruffle a lot of feathers here. You know they are extremely well guarded."

"We can use your plan to do it. We won't be suspected."

"True, and after that it will be Jaehaerys' headache. Let him deal with it."

"Yes, forget about that. We should celebrate the good news." As he brings his hands towards me, I knock it off.

"Not tonight. Find a way to fix the problem of you dying in the next two months and we can celebrate however you want and stop pouting."

He sighs and says, "I got a raven from King's Landing earlier. The royal entourage should be here in 5 days. Maegor's funeral will be a week from today. It is going to get very busy here."

**6 days later**

**Jaehaerys Targaryen**

It had been almost a week since the duel between King Maegor and Prince Rhaegor happened and I still have no idea what went on in the now destroyed Arena. I remember my younger days when I used to visit them at Dragonstone and Rhaegor's attempts to convince father and mother to let him teach me magic. I knew Aegon trained under Rhaegor for both his swordsmanship and magic. Viserys didn't like magic and I followed Viserys in avoiding magic. After last week I think it might have been a mistake. My two uncles were moving at inhumanely fast speeds and the raw power of their blows. I involuntarily shudder at the thought of it. I would pity the person on the receiving end of either one of their blows. Rhaena always boasted that she was better than them and only lost to them because she was younger and was less experienced. I shudder again. I knew she trained under both of them so wow, I never realized how scary my sister can be. I have a lot of catching up to do if I am to reach even half their level of strength.

I still feel bitter about how the events unfolded. Aegon's death was an accident, Viserys' was a treacherous murder and the person who I was told was the reason for their deaths saved my life by taking a poisoned dagger to his heart. What mother told me were lies or was she also lied to? I don't really know what is going on anymore. The only thing I'm sure about it is I was used as a pawn first by the Lords who rebelled against King Maegor and then by Maegor himself to draw out the assassins that ended up killing him. I feel so weak and helpless and I'm supposed to be a King. How am I supposed to protect my subjects when I can't even be sure that I can protect myself? I feel a hand wrap around mine and squeeze mine. I look around to see my sister Alysanne give me a reassuring smile.

"Stop fidgeting, we will find out the truth Jae. Uncle Rhaegor promised us."

I smile back saying, "Of course. Where is he though? Are we in the right place?"

"I think we are. Don't worry they will find us with the Kingsguard waiting outside." she responds with a shrug.

After a couple of minutes, the door opens and Ser Olyver Braken announces the arrival of Rhaegor and Rhaena. The two mentioned walk in to the room moments later.

"I'm going to seal the room Ser Olyver. What we are going to discuss is sensitive family details."

Ser Olyver nods in understanding and closes the door. Rhaegor places his palm on the door and we feel a slight gust of wind blow in the room.

"What was that?" Alysanne exclaimed in surprise.

Rhaena pulls her into a hug and tells her "Don't worry Alys just protection from eavesdroppers."

That is indeed a very handy spell but why prevent the Kingsguard from hearing about it. Aren't they sworn to secrecy in my service? As I'm pondering, I find myself pulled into a hug by Rhaena too.

"C-can't b-breathe." Alysanne manages to stammer out and we are released.

Rhaegor starts laughing from the side and adds, "Easy there we don't want to kill them by smothering with your hugs."

"I'm going to hug them as much as I can. I was so scared of losing them when I heard that they challenged Maegor." Responds Rhaena with a defiant answer and we get pulled into another hug.

"I missed you too sister." I reply patting her back.

"So what is this rumor I hear? You two plan on getting married?" Rhaena asks Alysanne as she releases us from her second hug. Alysanne blushes and swats Rhaena's had away.

"I plan to. There is some opposition from the Lords who are trying to gain some benefits from the royal wedding."

"Alyssa supports them?" Rhaegor asks with an incredulous face.

"Not really. I think Lord Baratheon is attempting to gain some influence by placing himself as Hand and he has also been courting mother for a while. I really think he is trying to use our wedding to gain my approval for his courtship." I explain the court intrigue that had been going on the past few days.

Rhaegor starts laughing and earns a smack from Rhaena. I wonder what he finds so funny.

"Are you opposed to them marrying?"

"No sister but I don't want him to marry mother just for court influence which is what it looks like he is doing. He has already been named Hand and Protector of Realm till the end of my regency and with mother as Regent I believe he might be trying to overplay his hand there."

Rhaegor stops his laughter and replies, "I never thought Rogar had such high ambitions, but I have the perfect solution to your problems."

"What would that be?" asks Alysanne from the side.

"Remain in Dragonstone till the end of your regency. The Lords who want to meet you, can come here. Alyssa and Rogar can take care of the realm's affairs and to be honest you don't really have a say in that either. Your Kingsguard here can keep you protected, and I get to train you two for the next two years, maybe even more." He explains as he grins towards the end.

I shudder at the thought of training under him. Why do I get the feeling it is not going to be a pleasant two years for me?

"No, I'm not letting you get your hands on Alys. You can have Jae if you must." Responds Rhaena pulling Alysanne into another hug. You are throwing me to the demon? Traitor. I start chuckling and I'm followed by the others.

After a few moments we settle down in the chairs. Rhaegor pours us a drink and sits in his chair and asks, "So what do you two want to know?"

"Let me start from the beginning. Did Queen Visenya kill my father to crown Maegor?"

Rhaegor looks surprised and Rhaena starts laughing.

"Out of all the outlandish rumors I have heard, that one never made it to my ears. However, let me ask you another question, would Alyssa kill Aegon to crown Viserys or you? Aenys was sick by the time he reached Dragonstone. Leonna tried her best to find out what was wrong. He died too quickly for her to figure it out. Could have been an assassination or just his previous ailments just flaring up at the wrong moment."

There is a somber silence in the room. Why would mother claim he was killed by Queen Visenya?

"Why wasn't Aegon crowned after father's death?" asked Alysanne.

"He didn't have a dragon, we didn't have time to establish a regency and the Faith Militant were already pushing to take King's Landing. We needed a strong response and Maegor with Balerion was our best bet and it turned out to be correct."

Maegor could have waited for the coronation to happen after he took care of the Faith in King's Landing, I wonder if things might have turnout differently if Aegon had hatched a dragon like Alysanne and me.

"How did Aegon and Viserys die?" I ask.

"Alyssa goaded him into rebelling, and Aegon decided to challenge the biggest and most dangerous dragon to combat. He died to the wounds he received after he fell from Quicksilver. Maegor was grooming Viserys to be his heir. He was also in charge of training Viserys alongside his betrothed, my daughter Artemis. Viserys suffered an injury from training. Tyanna used it to poison him slowly over the period of twelve days."

"Wait wasn't Viserys a hostage? What would Maegor make him his heir?" I blurt out.

"Yes hostage to prevent something like Aegon's challenge from happening. Queen Ceryse was barren and Quenn Alys' children were all killed by Tyanna. So Maegor had a choice to make my children or Viserys heir. I chose Viserys."

Alysanne and I were shocked at this reveal. Tyanna had not only killed Viserys but also Maegor's children. Alysanne asked the question in both our minds, "Why did she do that?"

"It is a secret of Maegor's that I promised him I will take to the grave. I haven't told Rhaena either." Rhaena gave us a wry smile from the other side as Rhaegor continued. "Just that she was paid a considerable amount of money by the Faith Militant to do it."

So the Faith Militant found someone who had a grudge against Maegor and used her as an assassin. The Faith Militant is getting disbanded as soon as possible.

"What would have happened if Queen Alys' children survived?" I ask.

"It is a bit complicated. Viserys would have been just a prince, married my daughter and maybe given some castle in the Crownlands as his fief. He would have tried to unify the claims of both family through marriage, maybe-"

I interrupt him asking, "We were the rightful heirs to the throne, and he would do that?"

"We are of House Targaryen, we are dragon blooded, and we are strong, selfish and protective. So, stop thinking like the rest of the Lords of the realm."

That just sounds wrong. If we don't set an example to the Lords of the realm how can we expect them to follow us.

"Do you know who hired the assassins who attacked us in the Arena?"

"No. They were Faceless Men." I feel a chill going down my spine. "So, take a guess on who has the resources to hire them. Probably the most powerful Lords and sons of Lords who still hold a grudge for the Conquest."

Rhaegor seemed to be nonchalant but I was panicking. Were they hired to kill me? Why did they attack me?

"Stop panicking. You are safe. They realized that they couldn't take on Maegor in a straight fight so used you to kill him. It was probably their last ditch effort."

"How sure are you about this?" asked Alysanne.

"If Jaehaerys was the target he would have already been dead. Someone wanted Maegor gone and Jaehaerys on the throne and they got it."

The room goes silent. So the Lords either assumed that I would serve as a better pawn for their game or I would serve as a better leader since I have been fostered under Lord Baratheon instead of a Targaryen.

"If I'm to be perfectly honest, after the reveal of Tyanna's treachery Maegor almost lost his will to live. Him dying trying to protect his family would have been the ideal way he saw his end."

"Why would the Lords try to kill him? Do you think the same ones killed father?" I ask.

"Aenys was an idealist. Always believed that the good in people will prevail if we showed them the right guidance. He tried to make too many changes too fast and the Lords saw him as a threat. Maegor and I destroyed the Faith Militant and amassed significant military strength while doing so. The Lords started to believe they were becoming irrelevant and they reacted."

Rhaegor sighed, poured himself another drink and continued.

"The duel was to show the supremacy of our House to the Lords and that we are unassailable even without our dragons. However, that ended up being a disaster. We were humbled and shown that even with dragons all it takes is a dagger to the heart to end our lives. Right now, you are given a clean start. How House Targaryen develops will be in your hands. You can go the path of the tyrant and focus power towards yourself or try to reconcile with the Lords and spread our influence slowly within the realm or a path that uses aspects of both. Just remember, the truly intelligent people learn from other people's mistakes."

"You have given me a lot to think about uncle. I would like to discuss this matter with you in detail once things settle down around us."

"Of course, nephew or should I call you Your Grace?" he adds with a smirk.

"Maybe after my coronation and majority. Till then I'm just your nephew."

"Rhaena and I have still have preparations left for tomorrow's events. If you need anything send a Kingsguard knight to my study. I will be there for the rest of the day."

"I will uncle."

I get pulled into another hug along with Alysanne by Rhaena and then they leave the room.

I sit in my chair pondering over the discussion we just had. The answers Rhaegor provided did clear some of the haze that I had been under. I'm just not sure if I agree with their methods. They seemed to care only about the strength of House Targaryen. The Lords of the realm and their methods didn't seem to matter for my uncles. Even their ways of helping the smallfolk tend to avoid dealing with the Lords and take a direct approach. No wonder they riled up the Lords against them. Rhaegor did agree that he made mistakes so I'm meant to learn from them.

"What do think Alys?"

She ponders for a few moments and then says, "Rhaena seemed a bit sad, I thought she would have outright supported our claims. Maybe Maegor's death affected her."

"Before Viserys was born she almost entirely trained with Maegor. I'm not surprised she cared about him."

"Rhaegor's emotions were all over the place. It was as if he knew what I was trying to do and acted accordingly. I don't know why he would do that, maybe he is hiding something."

Well that is concerning. This is the first time I have seen someone counter Alys. Of course he wouldn't reveal everything. I wonder what he could be hiding. Is he planning another campaign like he did with the Stepstones? I wonder if he would attack Dorne. He would provide a good distraction to the Lords who might try to prey on me.

"I want to take a look around the city. What do you think Jae?"

"Sure I should let the Kingsguard make the necessary preparations."

A stroll outside seems like a good idea. It would be a nice change from just staying inside this dreary castle. Maybe I should also use this chance to interact with the peasants in the city. In the end it is the smallfolk that I'm ultimately ruling over.


	5. Act 1 - 5 Funerals and Plans

**Near Dragonstone 37 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

Whenever someone mentions Dragonstone to me it reminds me of the Dragonball Z abridged joke on Vegeta. The Island is named Dragonstone. The biggest castle in the island is also called Dragonstone. The material the castle was built of is also called dragonstone and finally the throne in the castle was also called Dragonstone. My ancestors suck at naming things.

When I was young, I heard from mother that the peasant population in Dragonstone is very less and therefore we don't have much farming going on with fishing being the main source of food. The small port town near the castle was the only hub of human activity. No one ventured deeper into the island. Dragonstone is a vocanic island with an active volcano called Dargonmont. Thank heavens they didn't name that as Dragonstone too. The castle itself was built as an outpost fortress and later converted to a castle on the side of the volcanic mountain. From my knowledge from back on Earth I know that volcanic soil is one of the most fertile soil for farming. Naturally I was confused on why no one wanted to farm this fertile land. The reason was stupid as I found out from my mother. Smallfolk were afraid. They feared that the mountain would blow up, they feared the dragons flying in the skies of the island and finally they feared venturing into the unknown territory. I think the size of the Island is around three times the size of New York City. That is a lot of potential revenue we were missing out because large parts of the islands were unexplored, and the smallfolk lacked knowledge.

When I initially founded the Knights Templar their main role was to form exploration parties and get the full island explored and mapped out in detail. By the time I had to submit my first performance report on the Order to my parents we had managed to accomplish about one third of that goal and we started to get a small stream of people moving into the island and stating to settle in the newly explored regions. Mother was happy with the performance and agreed to increase the size of the order from two hundred knights to one thousand knights. Nothing else changed, we were limited to Dragonstone and the name was kept secret. With the added manpower I started to spread knowledge about basic sanitation and hygiene to the smallfolk. If my people live longer, they get more work done and in turn make a lot of money for me. That was my idea behind the health campaign, and it worked beautifully. With my knights enforcing my ideas soon Dragonstone started to develop from a dreary island to something better.

The influx of people to the island also caused an increase in the size of the port town. Maegor and I asked mother to allow expansion of the town to a port city with expansion of the harbor facilities to allow more ships to dock. We essentially wanted the new city to be a trade hub in the Narrow Sea which required a City Charter from the King. I also wanted artisans that can keep my Templar forces supplied to have an incentive to come to the island. Therefore, I wanted it to be a manufacturing hub in the region. By the time my second report on the Order was submitted the entire island was fully explored and the dreary port town developed into the city of Dragonsurf. It functioned as hub of commerce and industry. It also served to reduce the significant ship traffic to King's Landing. I had transplanted some of the industry infrastructure in King's Landing to Dragonsurf, mainly the military aspect by reducing the taxes. After the second report mother was satisfied with the progress and allowed the expansion of the order to five thousand knights. I was now allowed to recruit and operate in the surrounding islands of Driftmark and Claw Isle but allowed to only recruit from the mainland. The secrecy of the order was still maintained. The Lords just assumed that we were using the knights as guards for the city and since they were unsure of the total numbers we had, they didn't suspect us of building a military force.

As Dragonsurf thrived, I was able to convince the artisans I needed to move to the island and join my order. So I had my supply chain ready for future expansion and I know any military force is only as good as its supply and mobility is. I decided not to use full plates for the Templars as it was expensive and also severely reduced the mobility of the force. Lamellar and laminar armor was my chosen defense equipment. The low ranked knights were given lamellar armor and the higher ranked ones wore laminar armor. The knights were also taught how to maintain the armor and unless they needed heavy modifications or repairs, the artisans of the order weren't needed. For their offensive weapons they received training in both pole arms for melee and bows or crossbows for ranged depending on preference.

I initially wanted to introduce gunpowder and make firearms for their offensive weapons. Then I realized that it would be stupid of me to give the folks in this world one more way to kill me. Bows and crossbows are enough for a ranged attempt on me and I don't want guns to join that list. Cannons would have been cool for ships and sieges, but as Harrenhall and the Volantene fleet proved we have dragons to solve that problem.

Something I found out about the small folk in Dragonstone, Driftmark and Claw Isle was that about ninety percent of them had Valyrian blood but spread thin over the years. Some of my ancestors probably had a lot of good time with the smallfolk ladies. Mother wanted them primarily, as knights of the order. This served two purposes, they were to swear a blood oath to the Grandmasters of the order which were Aenys, Maegor and me with hierarchy in the reverse order. Since it was my brain child I was the top dog. Maegor became second in command and Aenys was forced to be the third by father. Aenys was only interested in the spreading culture aspect of the order and not the military aspect as he believed that it wouldn't be needed. The closer they are to our bloodline the stronger the oath, hence the reason for mother's condition. The second reason was a strengthening ritual I designed for higher ranked knights in the order based on the bloodline activation ritual. It would help them forcibly unlock the bloodline but nothing beyond that, making them a much better fighting force than the best knights in the realm. So essentially we had a force of fanatically loyal and enhanced human army serving for the glory of House Targaryen. I should have named the order Adeptus Astartes.

In my quest to make a parody of the Warrior Sons I realized that I accidentally managed to create Westerosi version of 'Space Marines'. Leonna was not impressed but I considered it as an absolute win. By the time the third performance report was due, the order had become completely self-sufficient. The income we brought with the improved growth of the island offset all our expenses. The islands were bandit free and mostly trouble free. Lords Velaryon and Celtigar were happy that their merchant fleet were making them boatloads of coin with the extra trade hub and we were paid a share of the coin for maintaining law in the isles. I got permission to double my force to ten thousand and also start expanding navally. I preferred to not rely on the royal fleet to transport them and also wanted my order to be a naval threat too. I still didn't have permission to access the mainland. Maegor wanted to build another castle on the far side of the island and try to develop into a naval base for the Templar fleet. Father however wanted him to finish King's Landing work first. That city was overcrowded and starting to stink. It needed better health and sanitation infrastructure and no one was in a hurry to start working on it.

The third performance report was approved two months ago and I was already making significant progress on the recruitment side. Earlier this day I was in Braavos making a deal with the Sealord for my naval plans. Braavos makes the best ships and hoards shipbuilding knowledge like a dragon hoards its treasure. My knowledge in ship building is basically clicking 'Build Ship' button in strategy games. If only I had access to Wikipedia. My plan was to hire Braavosi ship builders to teach my Templar artisans, who are more inclined to the engineering of building ships. The Sealord however was trying to get me to commission the ships that I need to the Braavosi builders. He finally relented after I signed a deal with him that would give a tax break for Braavosi shipments in Dragonsurf and also a non-aggression pact. They will not attack or support our enemies in the six kingdoms and we will not attack Braavos or support any of it enemies. I guess they were not huge fans of Father supporting Pentos and deciding to fight against the Volantene fleet during the Century of Blood.

After getting the Sealord's approval I proceed to the shipyard and hired all the shipbuilders I could to teach my Templars and me the art of shipbuilding. I mainly wanted to learn to see if I could improve on the designs based on my physics knowledge from back on Earth. The best-case scenario would be if I could magically enhance them to behave like Euron Greyjoy's teleporting ships. After finishing the deal with the shipbuilders, I planned to explore the city a bit before making my way back home. When I told mother that I wanted to visit the Faceless Men while I was in Braavos I received one of the worst scolding of my life. Apparently Faceless Men have a huge hate boner for Valyrians but unlike Rhoynar they used to be slaves of Valyrians and freed themselves by killing their masters after learning the art of assassination. So my attempting to go talk to them is like tempting fate in Murder-Death-Kill world, which means I will mostly end up dead.

As I was exploring the city I was pondering if I should train my own assassination force, Morag Tong sounded Valyrian enough. Then, I suddenly hear Vhagar's roar. What is mother doing in Braavos? I focus my awareness and I sense her and start walking towards her with my guards. This happened eight hours ago.

Right now, I'm flying back with mother while my guards will return with the shipbuilders on the next ship they can hire. Father had a stroke earlier today and despite Leonna's best efforts was dying. That's why mother decided to fly to me so that I have a chance to talk to him in the worst case scenario. Damn I knew that death would eventually come but there is no way to prepare for such a sudden event. Vhagar is our fastest Dragon, I just hope she is fast enough.

Vhagar lands on the walls of the Castle and we climb down and rush towards Father's chambers. The entire family was standing there in the room connecting to father's chambers and they were looking somber.

"How is he?" I ask with a gulp.

"He passed away about an hour ago," responds Aenys.

"God damnit." I punch on a nearby wall in anger.

I turn around and for the first time in this life I see my mother with tears. I pull her into a hug and try to console her. I don't know what to say and we just end up standing there. After a few moments she pulls back and announces, "I need to announce this to the Small Council and the rest of the court. You three get the preparations for the funeral started. Alyssa with me" and she walks towards the great hall closely followed by Alysssa.

"Why did it have to be today? Damnit." I yell in frustration. Rhaena comes over to me and hugs me. Hugs are good.

"I'm sorry, I tried my best," says Leonna who seemed to be on the verge of tears.

I pull her into the hug too. Group hugs are better.

"He was proud of us." Maegor says as he sits down on a chair and Ceryse moves behind him rubbing his shoulder.

"What?"

"Those were his last words," Aenys clarifies, "He said that he was proud to have us as his sons."

"I always considered father like the dragonstone our castle walls are made up of. Always there for us steady and supportive. Life ends too quickly." Maegor ponders loudly.

"How exactly did it happen?" I ask them as I let my girls free from the hug and take a seat next to Aenys.

"He was with Aeg, Visy, Arty and Leo in the painted room telling them tales of the conquest. Leo came running to me with a Kingsguard claiming that the King collapsed. I ran to the room to find him on the floor. He had the symptoms of a stroke. The Kingsguard helped to get him on a bed. Unfortunately it was too late by then. He was going in and out of consciousness. The Queen immediately left to go get you." Leonna explained.

"I guess he was happy at the end surrounded by people who loved him. How do we even prepare for the funeral? Any of you know?" I ask the people in the room.

"Send letters to Lords of the realm announcing the funeral date. Make preparations in the castle and the city to accommodate for the influx of people," Aenys explains, "have the Silent Sisters prepare father's body and hope that Balerion calms down before the funeral."

"What happened to him?"

"Let out a long roar the moment he lost connection to grandfather, for a couple of minutes. I was sure that I was going to die for a few moments there." Rhaena shudders as she responds. "He flew towards the volcano, probably venting his sorrow there."

"Do the children know?"

Aenys responds, "Not yet. We were waiting for mother to be back before we announced the news."

"Alright Maegor you go alert people in the castle and the Silent Sisters, I'll go down to the city and alert the Templars and the City Watch. Ladies explain the news to the children. Aenys you are King now, you should probably talk to the court after mother finishes the announcement."

Everyone nods and we start moving out.

Aenys suddenly stops us saying, "Before we leave, I need to take care of something," and removes his Templar Grandmaster ring from his finger.

Oh, he is passing it on now?

"Rhaena Targaryen, kneel," he commands Rhaena. That answers my question I guess she is going to be the third Grandmaster now.

Rhaena gets on one knee.

"Brothers, as I will be taking on the duties of the realm's King, I will not be able to perform my duties towards our Order. Are we in agreement for my choice of the next Grandmaster of the Order?"

"I'm in agreement," I respond.

"I'm in agreement," responds Maegor.

"Rhaena Targaryen, do you swear without duress in the presence of the Grandmasters of the Order of Knights Templar to stay true to the purpose of the Order, maintain it's laws and work towards the glory of House Targaryen."

"I do Grandmaster."

"Arise Rhaena Targaryen, Grandmaster of the Order of Knights Templar."

She gets up and hugs Aenys. "I promise I will make you proud father."

He hugs her back saying, "I have complete faith in you Rhaena."

"I'll update the Archivist while I'm there." I inform the group and then we proceed to leave the room.

Aenys asks a couple of Kingsguard knights who were waiting outside to stay and guard the room.

I developed a much closer relationship with my mother than my father because of my Old Soul reveal. However, as Maegor mentioned earlier he was the rock that supported us. He was also a very busy man as being the ruler of six kingdoms took its toll, despite that he always made time for us three. I always had most fun with him bouncing ideas for fighting styles and various administrative reforms that I could think of based on my previous life. Most of my reform ideas were shot down for immediate effect but shelved for future use because of the drastic nature of change it would entail and Lords don't like their power disturbed. The Conquest itself was a sore spot for them as all the Lords went one step down in the totem pole of importance. Mother was always serious and every action she took would somehow result in furthering our House. Father however was a bit on the chill side. He even approved my initial idea of the Templars and was amused at my attempts to bring back the Dragon Gods of Valyria.

I eventually manage to walk out of the castle and start riding towards the City Watch Tower. It is basically the Templar headquarters and the hub of their administration. As I'm still not allowed to reveal their true nature and existence to the rest of the realm, I used the City Watch to camouflage the order. The Watch officially only has three thousand men. The members rotate between patrol duties in the three islands and training camps to give the illusion of reduced numbers to anyone actively trying to look. As the population of Dragonsurf grows and the city becomes bigger I will need more members in the Watch. I hope by then I wouldn't need to conceal the existence of the Order.

In the show the Goldcloaks were King's Landing's City Watch. The idea of knights wearing capes was incredibly stupid though it supposed to be only for ceremonial purposes. Cloaks however was not a bad idea. It served as a protective outerwear to weather elements and it was easy to remove if you want to get into combat. However, there was a reason cloaks went out of fashion back in Earth. After much deliberation I decided that hooded robes similar to the Jedi used was the way to go as they are still easy to remove and are much better because they have sleeves. I got the Templars into robes of our house colors, red and black with once side red and the other side black. The sides were made reversible too and they looked pretty badass in their full ceremonial wear which included the robes on top of their full armor. They wore the red side when they were serving the City Watch and the black side when they were on other duty.

I took a while, but I eventually reached the City Watch Tower which was built on the far side of the city from the castle. It was built on a coastal cliff near the port to allow them fast access to the port and the industrial and commerce areas. Maegor went all out in the design for the tower as he wanted to see if he could replicate the Hightower. We realized we could do it using dragonstone but would take a long time with just two mature dragons and also would be too fucking expensive. So, it was just made into a regular fortified keep called Dragonreach keep.

Dragonstone, the stone is made from fusing rocks with dragon fire and shaping them to whatever size or shape we want. Once the placement is done more dragon fire is used to fuse the pieces in place. Since dragon fire is magical, now you have magically strengthened monolithic structure that looks fucking cool and is also highly durable against weathering effects. That is how the castle was built, so technically the entire castle is one big fused rock with. Adding the secret passages and other intricate stuff in the castle, I must admit that the planning behind its construction were done by master architects and a lot of resources must have been consumed during its construction. Although considering it was built by Valyrians in their prime, a lot of slave labor was probably involved.

As I enter the keep, I see some of the men training and I also see Legate Gradon overlooking the training. These must be men from his Legion.

"Legate Gradon gather the council we will meet in the conference hall in twenty minutes." I announce to him.

"Yes, Grandmaster," he salutes and leaves.

I proceed towards the conference hall. The council comprises of all the Legates, the Master Builders, the Preceptor, the Archivist, the Strategist, the Masters and the Grandmasters. Each Legate is in charge of a legion of one thousand Templars. There are two Master Builders who are currently in charge of all the artisans of the Order. The Preceptors are responsible for the education and literacy of the Templars. The Archivist is the one in charge of all the people who deal with paper work and bureaucracy of the Order. The Strategist is responsible for the movement of troops and maintaining supply lines. The Archivist and Strategist work with the Masters in tandem to determine orders for the legions. Each Master is in charge of two legions. We currently have three Masters and once the Sixth Legion is filled, a Legate will be promoted to Master and put under charge of recruiting and filling the Seventh and Eighth Legions. They all report to the three Grandmasters.

For today's meeting we will be missing two Grandmasters and one Master who is on a recruitment trip. The men enter the hall as the minutes pass by after about ten minutes everyone is here, and I start the meeting.

"For the glory of House Targaryen."

"For the glory of the dragon lords." I hear them answer my call-in unison.

I hate Maegor for the cringe that I'm feeling right now. That sounds so cheesy every time I say it.

"The King passed away around two hours back. Grandmaster Aenys Targaryen will ascend to the throne. In accordance with the laws of the Order he passed his ring to his heir and eldest daughter Rhaena Targaryen. Rhaena Targaryen had been sworn in as a Grandmaster of the Order fourty minutes ago. You will be able to offer your oath of fealty to Grandmaster Rhaena next time she visits Dragonreach keep. Archivist update the records, Masters and Legates prepare for influx of people in the city and castle. Once the funeral date is confirmed I will send more information. Any questions with regards to this series of events?"

I don't hear anything, so I proceed to tell the Master Builders and the Strategist about the deal I made in Braavos and from then on it just devolved into a regular council meeting with me reviewing reports from them and dealing with paperwork. I finish the important stuff, leave the rest for later and head back to the castle. As I ride back I think of the last time I hunted game with father and my brothers.

**Flashback Winterfell 33 AC**

Royal progresses are awesome. Royal progresses were similar to how Robert Baratheon went to Winterfell taking an entourage with him. In father's case it is not just a pleasure trip or a trip to hire a Lord. He takes an entourage with him and visited various Lords of the realm and holds court in the castles of these Lords. It is a major PR event engineered to show the Lords and the people of the realm that the King cared about their well-being. It also prevented dissent among the Lords of the realm as they saw that the King would care about their troubles.

Typically Maegor and I weren't allowed to join for these as we ended up helping mother handle ruling the Kingdom in father's absence during the progress. This time I managed to convince mother to let us join father with Aenys as he was planning on visiting Casterly Rock, Riverrun and Winterfell. I didn't really care about Riverrun but Casterly Rock and Winterfell were the most iconic locations in the show after King's Landing. I wasn't going to let that chance slip away.

Our first stop was Casterly Rock. The castle was similar to Dragonstone. It was monolithic but instead of being constructed with dragonstone it was hollowed out of a rock on a mountain. The mountain was a literal gold mine. Therefore, after thousands of years of mining and excavation they had hollowed out the mountain enough to make a huge castle inside it. Leonna also joined us on this trip as she had never been to the Lannister seat of power as far as she knew. Father held court for over a month. During that time Maegor and I got to explore the cavern system and tried to come with theories to actually take the castle down with a siege.

Mother was correct, if the Lannisters didn't come out and fight in the Fields of Fire we might not have taken control of them. Idiots. Leonna and the children connected with the other Lannisters. Lord Loren Lannister wanted his granddaughter Elinor to foster under Leonna. That girl was the same age as my kids so maybe after ten years? I also found out that House Lannister had a valyrian steel great sword named Brightroar that they lost when a previous king took it on a naval expedition. To take such a priceless artifact when on a naval expedition to me seemed to be the height of stupidity. I wonder if I can track it down. Our stay at Casterly Rock ended on a high note when Maegor and my exploration found a new gold vein. Our next stop was Riverrun.

Rivenrun was considerably boring when compared to Casterly Rock. It was just a castle surrounded by rivers and a very strong defense to land based siege but against dragons they didn't stand a chance. It just felt like an extension of the Crownlands even with the behavior of the Lords. We finally reached Winterfell five months after the start of the progress and it proved to be better than what I expected.

I think Harrenhal is the only castle bigger than Winterfell and that was built using Ironborn's slave labor. Wintertown is a town that lies on the outside of Winterfell similar to Dragonsurf and castle Dragonstone. The town is like a relief shelter for the harsh winters that plague these lands. During the warmer period the smallfolk leave the town to do their jobs in the lands belonging to Winterfell. However, as the colder period starts they come back to the town to take shelter. The castle is built on top of a hot spring which keeps the area warm compared to the rest of lands. It felt weird that we lived on a volcanic island and didn't take advantage of the hot springs there till I pointed it out to my parents. I guess their condition was more of a need than a luxury that we use hot springs for.

Winterfell also had a lot of really tall towers and I managed to find the one from which Bran Stark fell from in the show. Winterfell was similar to Hightower as the start of its construction and foundation was done by Bran the Builder. While Hightower expanded upwards, Winterfell expanded outwards. The castle name is literally a pun for the place where long night ended, where winter fell. I wonder what made the Builder leave the bountiful region of Reach and choose this desolate cold place as power base. Leonna was fangirling over everything in the castle as she was an avid Stark supporter during the show. I think she wanted to see Winterfell more than Casterly Rock. The Starks of Winterfell were actually really nice folks. Lord Torrhen Stark was an old Lord but you could see that he still had an astute mind for politics or you could say, he had the Westerosi equivalent of common sense. He was the only King that realized that challenging a force with three mature dragons was stupid and surrendered to us without the loss of a single man on his side.

The North was a weird place, they had vast coastal regions but they didn't have a naval force to take advantage of that. Apparently one of the Stark ancestors decided to burn their fleet when his father was lost on a naval expedition into the Sunset Sea. Ok, I can understand stupidity due to grief but none of his descendants thought that they should rebuilt it? They don't live in a region that supports farming and they don't take advantage of fishing? I found out that some coastal lords do fish but they are always in danger of piracy from the Ironborn and other pirates.

I wanted to talk to the Starks about possibly rebuilding their fleet. This has two objectives for me as the north is the biggest exporter of 'Ironwood' an extremely hard and dense timber that is only found in the cold north. First, having their own naval defense would mean less piracy and more stable region which should make the region more productive and give us more taxes. Second, I want to expand their maritime trade and further increase the productivity of the region. I spoke to father about it and he agreed with my thoughts and gave me the green light to have the conversation with the Starks. I decided to talk to Brandon Stark, the heir of Winterfell about my ideas.

Right now I'm walking towards the Godswood, a grove of weirwood trees similar to mine in Driftmark. This is the very same place where the Night King was killed in the show. It is supposed to be rich in magical energy. As I enter I find Brandon Stark waiting for me in front of the 'Heart Tree', the oldest weirwood tree in the grove and which the Starks use to worship the Old Gods.

"Greetings Lord Stark."

He gives me a curt nod saying, "Your Grace."

Damnit Starks it wouldn't hurt to be a bit more cheerful.

"Right, I can see that you are not in the mood for small talk. I wanted to discuss with you about the possible rebuilding of the northern naval fleet." I explained.

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and replies, "I didn't expect this, Your Grace. You would want us to become a stronger power?"

"Eh. Why not? A stronger Westeros would mean a more progressive realm where we don't have to worry about infighting and focus on expanding outwards." I respond after being slightly confused at his question.

"Do you intend to start another war of conquest?"

Why is this guy hostile?

"I'm the third prince Lord Stark I don't have the necessary power or resources to start a war of conquest," yet. "Also have I offended you in anyway?"

His face softened a bit at my question, "No, Your Grace. Last time a Targaryen wanted to negotiate a deal with our family it resulted in my sister being forcibly married to the Andals of the Vale against her will. So forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical about your motives."

Oh yeah Aunt Rhaenys' unification plan. I think she was trying to forcibly make the kingdoms interact with each other resulting in a wedding where the bride's brothers didn't even show up. She didn't realize the mistake till it was too late. Maybe if she had suggested the House Royce it wouldn't have looked this bad. They still followed the Old Gods and First Men traditions. The northern Kingdom still has a reasonable hate boner towards the Andals.

"Lord Stark if I'm to be perfectly honest, having two kingdoms joined in marriage is the perfect way to unite the realm. Your father didn't oppose the union and in fact had the same thoughts as my Aunt. Your sister now is the Lady of Vale and has two lovely daughters from what I heard last about them."

Yeah I don't really give a crap about your personal feelings when the result behind the action turned out to be a successful one.

"So you want us to turn our backs on centuries of tradition and honor because it is good for the realm?" he is back to being a sourpuss.

"Tell me Lord Stark how many of the smallfolk under your protection die every winter? How about those that die to pirates that invade your shores every opportunity they get? Do you know what they think about your tradition and honor? Probably their ghosts could answer you. I have read about your history of your kingdom Lord Stark. Do you know why your ancestors the Stark Winter Kings prevailed over the Bolton Blood Kings? It is because of those same smallfolk who die needlessly under your protection, decided that the Starks would make better kings than the Boltons and chose your side. Now I may be young but I know that if the people who flocked to my family's protection are dying due to the actions of some idiot ancestor of mine I would do everything within my power to correct that mistake."

Oh boy got a bit pissed off at his stupidity there.

"How is the naval fleet related to winter deaths?" He asks me with a curious look.

Good at least something went through that thick skull of his.

"By rebuilding the naval fleet you also will build your merchant fleet, hopefully. You only need to look at the Manderlys, they are the richest house in the North. You will find that they don't lose as much smallfolk to winter compared to other Lords of the North. When you have more money you can buy more grain, buy better clothes and build better shelter for the smallfolk. Winterfell is blessed to have hotsprings relieve the bite of winter. Other castles do not have that luxury."

I'm pulling my stats out of thin air but it is not like he can go verify it.

"You have given me much to think about, Your Grace. I will have to discuss this with my father and brothers."

"Thank you Lord Stark. That is all I wanted to discuss about. I do want to know if I could use the castle archives and library. As you are aware I like reading and the personal records of the exploits of the Kings of Winter would be an interesting read."

I have other reasons too.

"That shouldn't be a problem I will arrange for you to be escorted once we get back to the castle."

"Then it will have to wait. I would like to spend a bit more time in this sacred grove. I like the feeling of this place."

There is another thing I want to try. Brandon however looks surprised at me.

"I know that feeling, Your Grace. It is the connection we share with the Old Gods. Before I leave, we have organized a hunt for the royal family in the Wolfswood tomorrow I was asked to mention this to you."

Ooh hunting, I wonder if there will be dire wolves and other fancy animals in these woods.

"Lord Stark, I heard rumors that there are bears and wolves bigger than horses in the north is there a chance we will run into them?" I ask in a hopeful tone.

He laughs and answers, "I'm afraid not, Your Grace. The giant bears and dire wolves do exist but they were all mostly killed off south of the wall. You will only find them if you go north of the wall. Even then is risky business to run into those beasts."

Well damn. I really want a fancy land mount that is not a horse.

"Thank you, Lord Stark. I will come find you in the castle once I'm done here."

"Of course, Your Grace," he bows and leaves.

As soon as he leaves I call Adept Russel, my body guard squad's squad leader.

"Adept Russel, make sure that I'm not disturbed for the next thirty minutes. If I'm not back in thirty minutes go bring Prince Maegor."

Ever since I started my weirwood grove in Driftmark I have been trying to figure out their magic and been failing miserably. I literally got no reaction from the trees. The trees still has their magical properties but I was unable to access their network. I assumed it was because they were newly planted. Now that I'm in front of one of the oldest weirwood trees on the south side of the wall I want to try again. I place my palm on the trunk of the tree flare up my magic energy and push some through the tree. I wait for a few minutes and see no reaction. Let's take this up a notch, I take Mehrune out and let it prick my finger and repeat the previous process by channeling the energy through my blood. Again, no fucking reaction. That leaves me with my final option, I really hope this works. I use Mehrune and sctatch the bark of the tree and the red tree sap starts flowing out. This time I channel my my magic through blood into the tree using the sap and suddenly everything goes dark.

* * *

x-x-x-x-x

* * *

_I feel like I'm in some void. Is this the network? Suddenly the black void flashes and turns into bright white light and I instinctively close my eyes. When I open them I see that I'm in a hall and there is some sort of discussion going on._

_"Lúg cóon, ni alatúlie na cín sanyë." _

_What language is that? I see a tall guy who looks like an elf, wearing armor that looks like it's made out of ice. That is white walker armor. Are these white walkers? They don't look like the ones in the show. They don't look human but they don't like shriveled up corpses either. They look like high elves from Skyrim but paler and don't have a resting bitch face. Frost elves maybe?_

_"I naman siniath, im anír na glenn studui nia cín gúl sui soon sui im tur." _

_The reply comes from another dude in full black armor. I still have no idea what the language is. Is that fucking Valyrian steel plate? That thing is worth at least three kingdoms of Westeros. It also looks so damn cool. He looks like Malthael from Diablo 3 from the back with a hood to match._

_The frost elf turns and looks at me and raises his hand. Fuck they can see me. Time to go. Fuck I'm stuck. I look down to see the lower half of my body covered in ice that seems to have risen from the ground that is made of ice. _

_"Ha tiria be mín gar_ _goth." _

_The frost elf dude says something while keeping his hands pointed at me. The ice on my legs is growing thicker. Hey I'm fire incarnate, fuck this ice. I start channeling my magical energy to break the ice. _

_"Ah, baw worrui heleg aran taur, Im thel."_

_The Malthael dude turns around and starts walking towards me. Yup full Malthael armor with a hood that is somehow obscuring his face and a hydra sigil on his chest plate. I'm almost done breaking the ice._

_"Sorry, this is going to hurt a little bit." Now that I understand. I hear a voice from under the hood as he places one of his gauntleted arm on my head. Fuck, I'm going to die here. He smacks my head with the pommel of his sword and everything goes black again._

* * *

x-x-x-x-x

* * *

I wake up to see Maegor with a worried frown and my head pounding with a migraine. Oh good I'm back to the Godswood.

"How long was I gone?"

"Russel came and told me what happened. I figured you we trying something stupid and saw you lying on the ground. Gave you a slap and you woke up. Did you just fall asleep in the snow?"

"Ah I was trying to see through the weirwood magic and I must have exhausted myself magically."

Maegor facepalms and says, "Of course you did. Idiot. This is why mother never allows you to go anywhere."

I wince and reply, "How about we forget that this happened and go prepare for tomorrow's hunt?"

He stares at me for a few minutes and then agrees, "Fine, but you owe me a favor."

"Of course." I check and confirm that I still have my daggers and we both start walking towards the castle. Time to go find the library. I know I saw a vision from the tree but it is kind of disjointed now and I can't really remember the details. Though I realize I found out a lot about the weirwood network.

**The next day**

I wanted to find as much information about the skinchangers and greenseers from the Winterfell library. It doesn't seem like a bloodline ability as the practitioners seem to appear throughout history randomly. There were several Stark Kings who were attributed to possess the ability to skinchange. It is not a learned ability either it seems to randomly appear. However one thing I did notice was that the skinchanger needed to have a very close bond with the animals he warged to. Greenseers were just rumors and they don't have the bond requirement and can warg into any animal as long as there is no magical resistance and no humans either. So the theory that the three eyed raven was responsible for the burning of King's Landing in the show, goes out of the window.

I wanted a mount, a special one. I'm not getting my dragon anytime soon and that leaves me with horses. Horses are not bad but everyone has horses and I wanted something exotic like bears or wolves or big felines. Damn, Elder Scrolls Online spoiled me with so many good mounts. It was one more reason I wanted to be on this royal progress. I heard rumors that the beasts in the north are double the regular sized ones. Wolves and shadowcats the size of horses and bears that were bigger than horses were supposed to be the common ones. Any of those would fit the bill for me. All I have to do is capture it and perform the same blood ritual mother devised for the falconry. Boom I get my exotic mount with extra strength, speed and infinite stamina. Also would have been a great way to get rid of my nick name. I was hoping to capture one during our hunting trip but Brandon ruined it for me. I'm not going to go north of the wall for mounts with the whole not wanting to tempt fate in this world.

So here were are now in the middle of a hunting contest between four groups. Two Stark groups and two royal groups. Maegor and I form our own group and to even the odds the Templar bodyguards were split into all the four groups. Hunting contests are mainly luck based, if you find good game then you win assuming you are not bad enough to let it escape. We came upon a stag that was bleeding. Weird, did some other group let this one escape? The I notice the bleeding were from bites and claw rather than weapons and true to that we see two shadowcats following the blood train of the stag. As I was pondering my next action one of the Stark men who accompanied us spoke up.

"Your Graces, these are young shadowcats and they can be very aggressive towards their prey, best we leave it and look for other game."

Wait these are young shadowcats? They are almost as big as the full grown ones you see in the south. Bingo. Looks like Lady Luck is on my side.

"Guards stay back. We don't want you to get hurt. Maegor and I are going to hunt those shadowcats."

"Are we?" asks Maegor from the side.

"Dude, young shadowcats." I stress on the word young and his face brightens with the realization. I have been talking to Maegor and mother about fancy mounts for some time. Mother just brushed it off as a youthful fantasy of mine. Maegor however wanting to one up me, also wanted a fancy mount before we got dragons.

"Yes you should take the one on the left and I'll take the one on the right. Guards protect our horses and don't follow us it might get messy and you might get hurt."

The two Templars in our group know about our strength and convince the Stark guards to let us go.

The shadowcat I'm after immediately takes an offensive posture towards me as I move closer to it. I'm able to dodge its attacks easily and after every time it attacks I give it a light smack on its nose. Eventually it realizes that attacking me is pointless and trying to attack means that it will get smacked, conceding defeat it tries to run away. As it tries to move away I flare my magic towards it and the shadowcat freezes in place dude to sheer terror. I eventually realizes that it cannot run and it cannot fight and realizes that submission is the only answer and it submits. I pick it up and walk back towards the horse and see Maegor is almost done with his too, though I notice a few scratches on him. He will be fine. The Stark guards look at me in shock.

"Your Grace, what do you plan on doing with it?" the one who initially spoke up he asks me.

"It has submitted to me. I'm going to use it as my mount when it grows up. You guys can kill the stag and carry it back with us."

They still seem to be in shock but proceed to relieve the stag out of its misery and wrap thing up here. Maegor comes back with his shadow cat and we start moving towards the rendezvous point.

"What are you going to name your cat? I'm going to call mine Simba." I ask Maegor.

He bursts out laughing, "That sounds weird, and I'm going to call mine Frost," and replies with a grin.

That word seems to be important but I can't remember why. Eventually we reach the point and see that we are the first ones back. We wait for the other parties to come back and after a while we notice all three of the parties come back at the same time.

Aenys looks at our cats and asks, "What are you two idiots doing with shadowcats?" in an incredulous voice.

"Dude, meet Simba he is going to be my mount when he grows up." I answer as I place the cat on my shoulder. It tries to scratch me and earns a smack to its nose.

Aenys gives out a loud groan and facepalms. Why? I'm missing something.

"Your Grace, it is almost fully grown. It maybe will grow half a foot taller. Not enough for it to be used as a mount," clarifies Brandon from the side as father and Lord Stark start laughing.

"Is this not a young shadowcat?" I ask realizing that I fucked up somewhere looking at the Stark guard.

"It is, Your Grace. It is a young adult," replies Brandon Stark with a smile. You ruined my dreams two days in a row Stark. I will have my vengeance.

Father finally finishes laughing and exclaims. "Well boys, looks like you have caught yourselves a couple of pet shadowcats."

Maegor looks at me furiously. Hey I didn't force you to do anything. You tamed your cat on your own and your cat seems to like you, mine still tries to scratch me. Leonna is going to laugh at me again.

**End of Flashback – back to Dragonstone 37 AC **

I reach the castle and head to see my twin daughters. Rhaena gave birth to these adorable cute-balls three months ago. I named them Aurea and Rhea, as Rhaena lost the bet for naming. I walk into the room to see the three of them sleeping peacefully. Must have been a tiring day for Rhaena and Leonna. I head towards the solar and find both my brothers there. Maegor brings out his special brew and we start drinking to tales of memories with father.

**One week later**

The last week had been a blur. Preparations for father's funeral had taken most of our time. We had Lords and their entourage pouring in from all over the realm into Dragonsurf. The City Watch were given the name 'Red Hoods' by the some of the Lords. After some minor scuffles and fights erupted over the city and were quickly shut down by the Watch. It seemed like the Lords were probing our strength. They soon learned that starting fights and disturbing the peace of Dragonsurf would invite a squad of Red Hoods who would either kill the offenders or take them captive to Dragonreach depending on the severity of the offense. Lords who made a fuss were asked to deal with me as I was technically in charge of the City Watch. Listening to the Lords complain of unjust treatment of their bannermen and showing them that their bannermen broke the laws and were being justly punished took most of my time.

The funeral ceremony was planned by mother. It was another PR move designed to show the Lords of the realm that the King might have died but his successors are still as strong as him. We had all the family's dragon riders with their dragons present with only Balerion missing. As Aenys finishes up his eulogy, we hear a loud roar and The Black Dread descends. It lands and Maegor dismounts from it joining the ceremony. All part of the plan. The Lords who were hoping to see the dragon out of action for a while are now scared and disappointed. Over the course of the years, my awareness ability had developed to sense the strongest emotion in the area and I notice it transform from relief to fear in a second.

When the funeral pyre is ready to be set fire both Maegor and mother give the commands to their dragons. They both shoot out the flames and set the pyre ablaze. Still part of the plan. However, the dragons don't stop and the rock that is supporting the pyre starts to melt. This is definitely not part of the plan. As Maegor and mother are about to give the command to stop something happens, the molten rock rises from the ground around the dragon's flames. I stop them and let the events continue. It looks like the dragons have something planned of their own. When the flames from the dragons finally stop the place where the funeral pyre was placed looks completely different. The weirwood pyre and the rocks that were supporting it were molded into a ten feet statue of father towering over the crowd. That is fucking awesome. I don't think any of us have any idea what happened but it seems like the dragons decided to pay their tribute to The Conqueror in their own way. The statue looked like it would come to life any time. It had father's features during his prime years. We might have started a new tradition for King's funerals.

Aenys picks up Blackfyre from the base of the statue and proceeds to make an announcement. Ok the plan had been derailed by the dragons but this was not part of the plan either.

"Lords of the realm, today a new reign will start in Westeros. I hereby declare, my brother Maegor Targaryen will be my new Hand of the King. As the strongest warrior of us three brothers I believe he is the most worthy person in the realm to wield Blackfyre and enforce my will throughout the realm."

He then hands over Blackfyre to a very confused looking Maegor. Mother looks irritated and even I'm a bit annoyed after Aenys completely derailed our power projection plan. Alyssa looks confused and even Lords assembled are confused. I guess he was supposed to wait till his coronation till he did changes like this and also giving away the ancestral sword made him look weak and not worthy of the sword. I'm sure Aenys has a plan, it would have been nice if he shared it with us as we could have prepared accordingly. I thought today's events would end with the funeral but now it looks like a new headache is about to start.

**Dragonstone 48 AC**

**Jaehaerys Targaryen**

The first royal funeral I remember was that of grandfather's. While I was only three namedays old at that time, I still remember Balerion and Vhagar breathing their fire and from the ashes of the pyre the statue of Aegon the Conqueror rise up. Back then I assumed it was a ceremony to make statues, it wasn't until later I realized what that ceremony meant. Then, my father's funeral followed my Queen Visenya's funeral were the other two royal funerals that I had been a part of. Right now I'm walking to the funeral of the man who gave his life to save mine.

**Flashback Earlier Today**

* * *

_x-x-x-x-x_

* * *

_I'm back at the Arena of the Kings. What the fuck is going on? I look and see Maegor and Rhaegor looking exhausted with Maegor lying on the ground laughing and Rhaegor sitting beside him also laughing. I remember this._

_"Watch out," I yell but they don't seem to hear me and I see the Faceless Men gang up on those two. Seriously after having seen them fight I knew they should have no issues and I was correct. My uncles shred through the assassins like they were made of parchment. I hear fighting all over the arena. I'm guessing the Kingsguard are also fighting some of these men. Suddenly I hear a noise behind me and notice all the guards are dead and two of these assassins appear menacing towards me. I turn to my right to see Alysanne looking scared and I hear Rhaegor shout _

_"Maegor they are going for the kids."_

_I hold on to Alysanne's hand and we take a few steps backward towards my uncles. The assassins stop their advance and throw something towards us and I'm knocked down on the ground. Maegor knocked me to the ground shielding me from the dagger that was thrown towards me. The dagger however got plunged into his back, must have been a weak spot in his armor or taken some damage from the previous fight._

_I hear a rush to the right and see that Rhaegor had tried to knock away the dagger thrown towards Alysanne and it is sticking out of his gauntlet. Rhaegor pulls the dagger out and moves quickly to finish off the assailants. Maegor is not moving. His face has a serene smile and he is dead. I hear the loud roar of Balerion._

* * *

x-x-x-x-x

* * *

I wake up sweating. That was a dream. That haunting smile followed by the bone chilling roar. It gives me the shivers every time I think about it. I look outside to see that it is still dark and I try to go back to sleep. I have a funeral to attend later in the day.

**Back to present**

I reach the funeral pyre and see familiar faces. Rhaegor is standing with Rhaena and their children. Aurea looks towards me and waves with a smile. I wave back feeling Alysanne squeeze my hand. Oh please stop being jealous sister. Rhaegor looks tired, I'm guessing that preparing for the event must have been pretty tiring. He steps forward to start his eulogy.

"I stand before you Lords of the realm in grief for the death of my dear twin brother. Even from childhood King Maegor wanted to be a warrior without peer and we both spent most of our days learning and training to be the realm's greatest warriors. Eventually with our enthusiasm we also manage to convince our brother King Aenys to join us in training. It was the carefree and joyous period of our lives. We did grow up and being princes of the realm we had our own responsibilities which we fulfilled to our best capabilities. After father, King Aegon's death we believed we were ready to carry the beacon of light passed to us by our father to us in serving the realm. We were met with treachery from the Faith Militant whose actions directly led to the death of King Aenys. The realm was weak and the Faith Militant were attempting to usurp the power of the throne. King Maegor and I stepped in to put an end to the treachery and push the Faith back to its rightful place, where they serve the people and not lust for power. However the remnants of these treacherous fools attempted to goad the misguided lords of the realm and my nephews to rebel against King Maegor. They were defeated again and again and in a final effort they attempted to kill my nephew and neice. King Maegor died protecting them.

I know, some of the Lords called my brother a cruel tyrant for his brutish methods in dealing with those traitors to the realm. However I ask the Lords here, do you treat potential killers of your family with kindness and friendship? No you eliminate that threat. That was what King Maegor did. The entire realm was his family and he eliminated that festering threat at the cost of his life."

Rhaegor walks back to his family. I feel like I should offer my thanks to the man too. I take a few steps forward to start my eulogy.

"The man King Maegor saved at the cost of his own life was me. Honor less assassins attempted to take the lives of my sister and me and were saved by my uncle. There are no words that could express the gratitude I feel towards him. However, I can repay the faith and kindness King Maegor showed me and prove to the realm that I could be his worthy successor. When I'm asked if King Maegor was a tyrant my answer will be yes, he was a tyrant, towards treacherous traitors, usurpers, dissenters and honor less scum. He was a true dragon lord. The realm was his family. He protected his family and destroyed any threats to it with a firm hand. I hope that I can do the same."

It is funny how your thoughts towards a person could change in the blink of an eye. Five moons ago I would have cursed the man for bringing ruin to my family but now I know who the real threat is. I have a duty to protect the realm but maybe not in the way my uncle did. I neither have the strength or the power to do so. As Rhaegor said I will have to forge my own path learning from the mistakes of my predecessors.

I hear the same loud roar that haunts my dreams and see Balerion descend and land near Vhagar. Rhaegor steps between them and gives the command. I stand there transfixed watching the funeral pyre converted into the statue of King Maegor right alongside my father's and grandfather's statues.

I start heading back to the castle along with the other Lords and Ladies.

"I didn't expect you to give a eulogy for uncle Maegor," Alysanne comments from my side.

"I didn't either, but after listening to uncle Rhaegor's I realized that we should show unity as a family and that everything those two did were for the good of the realm. I can't have the realm divided, I need to unite it in such a way that such madness would never need to occur again. As long as we show a united front as a family of rulers, the people we rule will have no reason to rise up and sow dissent amongst us. I know that my uncle Maegor's methods were too harsh but after seeing what the Faith Militant were capable of I believe we needed such a harsh ruler else we risked being overrun."

"The faith driven Lords won't see it that way. We will always be abominations in their eyes."

"I agree. We will have to make the Lord's opinions irrelevant. I know that I'm sounding too much like our uncles but if we can convince the people to accept our ways they Lords will have no basis to reject us. Father's idea of spreading Valyrian culture might be the way to go. Unfortunately we need way more time to implement father's other ideas."

"How do you plan on doing it? Uncle Rhaegor's knights did the same but it only incensed the Lords enough to plot against us."

"I don't know. We will have to figure out a way to do it without riling up the Lords and I believe it is possible."

**The previous day - Dragonstone 48 AC**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

Rhaegor and I enter his study and seal the room. Just a few moments ago we finished discussing part of the true story with Jaehaerys and Alysanne

"What do you think he will do? Will he go to war with the Triarchy or stay here and strengthen himself?" I ask my husband.

"I don't think that choice is his. I thought he would be more assertive and not let Alyssa dictate his actions but from the looks of it Alyssa and Rogar will be calling the shots for the next two years." He responds with a chuckle and then starts laughing.

"What's funny?"

"I always thought Rogar was just putting up with Alyssa out of respect for Aenys. Never knew he actually wanted to bone her. Explains a lot of his actions."

"That's my mother you are talking about." I respond with anger aiming a kick at his legs.

"That only serves to make it funnier." He says dodging my kick.

"I guess I will have to use the grieving parents excuse to unleash hell on Tyrosh and Lys." I say changing the topic.

"I suggest to instigate a slave revolt with Vhagar and Dreamfyre backing them up and kill all magisters possible. That should cause enough chaos in the Triarchy before the other slavers cities intervene to restore order. After that attack random targets and then finally retreat back to our children. By the time they are stable enough to look at Westeros you will have disappeared and Jaehaerys would have ascended to the throne."

That would be too soon as Jaehaerys wouldn't have time to consolidate his power by then.

"Jaehaerys would have his hands full dealing with internal problems." I frown as I ponder loudly.

"True, if the Triarchy attempts direct action it would only rile up the rest of Westeros against it. Also Jaehaerys will have 'proof' that Tyrosh and Lys were the ones behind the assassination. When he provides it, support for him will only increase. So I can see the Triarchy try something indirectly through Dorne maybe?"

Dornish fucks, as my beloved husband calls them, would rather stay in their desert to themselves.

"Getting Dorne to mobilize would take years."

"True. It all depends on the timing of events." He sighs and sits down and pours himself a drink.

"So did you read Leonna's letters?" I ask him.

Aurea sent a falcon to Leonna which received a response yesterday. I still haven't had the chance to talk to him about it.

"Yes after the first two parchments of scolding and berating me for my idiocy, she did suggest some ideas, some of which were like yours." He responds with a chuckle and continues, "Aurea however did come up with an idea that combines several ideas together. The chances of it working correctly as intended are very very low as it combines multiple rituals. In the off chance it works then I might not have to die."

"So there is a chance?"

"Yes love there is but only a truly mad man would attempt it."

"Ok, explain."

He proceeds to explain the crazy idea that he and his golden daughter concocted.


	6. Interlude - Tale of Lord Simba

**Lord Simba the Shadowcat**

My brother and I had managed to find a delicious prey for us kill and eat, when we were interrupted by two humans. How dare they think they could steal my meal? Puny humans, weaker than the prey trying to disturb the mighty me? So naturally I had to kill this intruder and make an example for the others waiting behind this human. That is when it started to go wrong. I was faster than my brother, but I couldn't manage to attack the human even once. Every time I tried to attack the human I only managed to get hit on my nose. The human was toying with me. How dare he? I tried my best ways to teach this human that he shouldn't mess with the mighty me. I eventually realized that this human was very strong and could kill me easily and was just treating me as a plaything. I need to escape, or I would be killed by this string human.

As I turned around to run, I felt fear. Not just any fear, this was a terror so primal that I had never felt before, I felt like taking one more step would mean I would be completely destroyed by the human. Ok, calm down and think, can't run away. The Human wants me to fight him? I will give him a fight. The great me will not be easily defeated. After some time getting smacked on my nose, I realized that the human wanted me to submit to him. How dare he? I can't run and I can't fight him, submission seems to be the only option left. I will have my revenge for this human. I will act like I have submitted to him and make my move on him when he is weak. I lay down on the ground and bare my stomach to the human. He smiles and then picks me up and carries me towards the waiting humans.

"Your Grace, what do you plan on doing with it?"

One of the humans waiting asks my human. I need to learn their speech that would give me plenty of opportunities to take my revenge.

"It has submitted to me. I'm going to use it as my mount when it grows up. You guys can kill the stag and carry it back with us."

The humans seem to obey my human. They go kill my prey and return with it. My brother and the other human come back. It seems he likes his human. Both these humans are very strong. I seem to have underestimated the strength of humans, but it doesn't matter I will have my revenge. They start walking with the group and my prey. They at least are bringing my prey with them. I'm hungry but I can wait for a while to eat it.

"What are you going to name your cat? I'm going to call mine Simba."

My human is talking something to my brother's human. My brother's human starts making a weird sound.

"That sounds weird, and I'm going to call mine Frost,"

My human points to me and keep repeating 'Simba'. What does that mean? Does he want to call me Simba? It sounds majestic and I will allow it. I try to bite his finger pointing at me and get another smack on my nose.

I realize that my human calls me Simba and my brother's human calls him Frost. Looks like my brother has truly submitted to his human. I wonder why?

Our group reaches a clearing and settle down. They start talking and it looks like they are waiting for something. My human attempts give me a piece of my prey that he cut out. The great Simba will accept your offer. I start to eat and see that my brother is also eating. Once my hunger is satiated, I attempt to bite my human again and get another smack to my nose. After a while I find out what we are waiting for as another large group of humans come to our clearing.

"What are you two idiots doing with shadowcats?"

They start talking and my human picks me up and puts me on his shoulder. This is a good opportunity and I attempt to claw his neck. I'm thwarted again and get another smack on my nose.

"Dude, meet Simba he is going to be my mount when he grows up."

After they talk for some time, they take all their stuff and start walking towards the outside of this forest. The new humans keep calling my brother's and my humans as Idiots. Do they have the same name? Then I shall call my human Simba's Idiot and my brother's human as Frost's Idiot.

We reach a big grey place where more humans are present. Looks like their den. Simba's Idiot and Frost's Idiot take us to a place inside their den where two small humans are sitting with a female human.

"What the hell are you two doing with Shadowcats?"

The female human shouts at us. Why is she so loud? Simba's Idiot scratches his head and starts talking for a long time.

"Let me get this straight. You two wanted shadowcat mounts and instead ended up with shadowcat pets? This is fucking hilarious, no wonder Aenys calls you the Idiot Duo."

The female human attempts to rub the back of my ear and I instinctively attempt to scratch and bite her. Suddenly I feel it again, that same primal terror. Ok, female human is off limits. I get it, please stop doing what you are doing. Simba's Idiot stops what he is doing after a few moments and I relax. I look around to see Frost playing with the smaller humans. Looks like my Idiot also did the same thing when Frost instinctively tried to attack. The tiny humans are also off limits, these humans are scary, very scary. I will have to wait a lot longer than expected.

The small female human comes to me and hugs me. I like this human. You shall be my new human I don't like Simba's Idiot anyway. Frost is hugged by the small male human.

Today did not go as planned at all.

**Time Skip**

After a long time travelling with the humans, I start to understand some of what they speak. Of course, it is me the great Simba, so it was done easily. My human's name is Artemis and Frost's is Leoric. Simba's Idiot is really called Rhaegor but I like him being my Idiot. The human female is called Leonna I like her a lot. She gives me the best tasting food. Frost's Idiot is called Maegor. We travelled through forests, other big human dens, some of them were called castles and also, we went over water on something called a ship. Even water cannot stop the great Simba.

The ship stops on another bid human den. Artemis calls it a city. My human is the best she teaches me this human speak and explains what things they say mean. She also feeds me delicious food every day. I must be very special to be taken care of by such a wonderful human. I learnt that humans who are special are called Lords. So, I shall be called Lord Simba from now on. We move to a big castle and Artemis takes me to her place in the castle. The great Lord Simba is tired so I'm going to sleep.

**Time Skip**

My Idiot Rhaegor is carrying me somewhere. I want to be with Artemis and try to escape, earning a smack on my nose. Fine, the great Lord Simba will allow you to take me to my destination. He opens a door and another older female human is sitting there. I don't like this human. Everyone is scared of this human. Artemis calls her Queen Visenya. I need to find out what Queen means, maybe later. Only the Idiots are not scared. Is she as strong as the Idiots?

"Mother, I hope you are having a wonderful morning," they start to speak.

"I was, till you walked in. So, what do you want?"

"I want to use the falconry ritual to improve this furball."

He places me on his shoulders.

"Aegon told me about the shadowcats. What made you think that those beasts would make good mounts?"

Ah, my Idiot thought that my brother and I would grow big enough for him to sit on us. I wonder why?

"The falconry ritual?"

Visenya sighs. Humans do that when they are tired. Why don't they just go sleep?

"I should have explained to you in detail but back then you were only a child. I had to sacrifice more than a hundred of each bird to get the ritual correct and that is after knowing that ritual existed for ravens. So, if you want your mount you would need to capture a similar amount to even get the ritual close to correct if it is a similar ritual. If you are starting something new, I expect the number to be impossibly high. The falconry ritual I made is still not perfect. I lose two birds for every bird that I get it done successfully. Right now I doubt even the Grey Rats have a better success rate. I hope to get the finer details corrected and have the ritual perfected soon."

They are talking about birds. I like birds they make good, tasty food.

"Fuck. I didn't realize it would be different for each creature. I knew you had some failures that is why I suggested taking notes on the failure and using it to improve the ritual. I just didn't expect the failures to be that high. Do you have the notes you have on all the failures?"

I'm getting bored of this talk. I try to scratch him again and earn another smack.

"You haven't fully tamed this one yet?"

"I like him like this. I don't what to break his spirit. It also keeps me alert."

"I see. So why do you need the notes and why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like your answer?"

"Mother, I have told you how in my previous life I was connected to worlds like ours. Some of them were magic rich worlds and they had spells and rituals much simpler than what we have to accomplish much harder stuff."

"Yes, we have spoken about it. I also remember telling you that our world would be different from those worlds and our magic lies in our blood."

Now they are talking about blood. I will draw blood from you my Idiot even if it is the last thing I do. That earns me another smack to my nose.

"Yes mother. However, you are aware that I have been doing my own research and study about the magical aspects of this world not limited to blood magic. I found two very interesting discoveries. The first is about the weirwood network. It is a combination of blood and soul magic and the whole realm of Westeros is filled with it even after they were almost destroyed my Andals. It can be accessed even by us who have no connection to the First Men."

"How did you find this out?"

"While I was at Winterfell-"

"Let me guess, you attempted something stupid in Winterfell, didn't you? How many times have I made it clear not to mess with magic you don't understand? You could have died."

Visenya looks like she is hungry. Maybe my Idiot should feed her something.

"It was just exhaustion. Nothing happened and I learned a lot of information about the network. I even figured a ritual to block the network on Driftmark. I don't know how effective it will be though."

Visenya sighs again. She is tired and hungry. She needs to eat a big meal and sleep.

"So why do you need the notes?"

"Our attempts at magic are like shooting an arrow though thick smoke and hoping it hits the target. We also most of the time don't know if we actually hit the target we wanted, till it is already done. Now what if I can blow wind and part some of the smoke and make sure the path to our target is visible?"

"We are back to this. You are attempting to find a better conduit than blood. Many sorcerers have tried it and failed. What makes you different?"

"I have already found magic that uses other conduits."

All this talk of blood is making me hungry too. Maybe he will let me bite him. No, he just smacked my nose.

"Those are?"

"Our dragons, skinchanging and geensight. Even the weirwood should have a way without requiring blood sacrifice. We just haven't found it yet because the sacrifice is the easy way for us."

"Dragons? They are connected by our blood. How are they not blood related? Is this your second discovery?"

"Yes. Mother, wild dragons live for about a hundred years. When they bond with humans, they boost our magic and physical abilities and in turn increase their life span. Valyrians thought it was blood related. It is not, it is a combination of blood and soul magic just like the weirwood network. Dragon's bond to its riders are not like skinchangers or greenseers. A dragon will only accept a rider if their souls are compatible and depending on how compatible, the lifespan increase, and our boost varies a lot."

"That is a good theory but we don't have any proof for it."

"I have already told you about my dreams."

"Yes, the future of our descendants you have seen in your dragon dreams. How does it prove anything?"

"I might have interpreted the dream wrong. Here are the things I saw clearly. Something happened that led to the dragons dying and no one else was able to even hatch eggs. Without dragons our hold over Westeros weakens and after a rebellion our family is exiled to Essos. Until a young Targaryen girl manages to hatch three eggs. Two of her dragons are killed fighting in the Long Night. She is killed after being betrayed by the Lords of the realm and the dragons are gone again.

We hatch eggs by just placing them near our infants and they hatch if they are compatible, without any blood magic involved. So if blood is the criteria then our descendants should still been able to hatch dragons. They weren't able to until the young Targaryen girl. You can't even count her ritual as a blood sacrifice. She just burns a sorceress alive with the eggs and we both know that is not how the hatching ritual works or any blood ritual for that matter. Something in her soul sparked the connecting link to the dragons and she bonded with three dragons. Too bad she was murdered, and that spark was again killed.

Now, what if the dragons didn't die but just abandoned our descendants? Dragons are proud and very intelligent creatures. They are capable of magic that we cannot even begin to understand. There are rumors of dragon activity all over the world, even here in Westeros. Our ancestors sought the help of dragons living in the fourteen flames of Valyria to escape from the tyranny of the Ghiscari. They shared their magic with us and let us become their riders in return for increasing their life span. Our descendants must have done something incredibly stupid that made the dragons decide we weren't worthy enough to wield their power, causing the dragons abandon us. Of course this is just a theory but it fits the criteria. I might have a test to prove it."

"What test?"

"In Winterfell archives I found out skinchangers must have a deep bond with their beasts. However when they bond they can skinchange, that is all. As you are aware the process involves a temporary transfer of the human soul to the beast. They don't share anything between them like our dragon bond. What if we can recreate something similar to the dragon bond with other animals? We gain something from them and they get something from us? Theoretically if I bond with this shadowcat I should gain something from its nature, and it should gain something from me."

I don't want to. I already have a human I like.

"Shadowcats are not magical creatures what do you expect to gain from it?"

"I found another interesting piece of information while in Winterfell. Shadowcats' highly increased stealth is main the reason they are very dangerous to humans all across Westeros. A previous Winter King sometime after Andal invasion had theorized that their stealth capabilities might be magical."

"That's why you wanted the strengthening ritual for the shadowcat?"

"Yes. I wanted to accelerate its growth magically but looks like I have to do it the natural way. I also want to see if multiple bonds are possible."

I hope they finish talking soon. I want to go eat something.

"I see. By your theory, this world's magic is a combination of blood and soul magic and we have been only focusing on one aspect of it. Fine, I will give you my notes but anything new you attempt, you will do only after I approve. I want to find out more about this soul magic aspect. Harnessing it in combination with blood magic might be the way to unleash our bloodlines. Also explain what you know about soul magic from your insights based on your previous life. I might be able to give you a different perspective."

I'm hungry enough to have my stomach rumble.

"Looks like this guy is hungry. Too bad I can't get you enhanced Simba. Let's meet later and discuss about its mother."

Hey its Lord Simba.

"Alright, Rhaena was looking for you. Probably for a spar, prepare yourself to be ambushed by her."

"I just got back."

He sighs. Looks like he is tired too. Ah we are finally leaving this place and the scary Visenya.

"I will go talk to her and see what she wants."

**Time Skip**

Artemis taught me that the name of the castle is Dragonstone. It is not a bad place. I'm given very delicious food, especially a lot of fish. The servants of the castle treat me kindly unlike my Idiot. So I the great Lord Simba decided that I will make this place my home and protect these humans from other creatures. Now I prowl the castle defeating rats and birds that try to mess with my home. The dragons still scare me. I get the primal terror every time they fly over the castle or land nearby. I learn that my Idiot has the power of dragons. Artemis also has it and has started to learn to harness this power. She works very hard and is always tired after training. I, the great Lord Simba will have to go distract my Idiot so Artemis can play with me.

My plans went wrong again. It is my Idiot's fault. Instead of letting me play with her he is making me train with Artemis. Artemis likes it so the great Lord Simba will allow them to train with me. I notice that we both are becoming faster and stronger after the training. My Idiot has made a mistake. Now I just need to become strong and fast enough to scratch him. Frost is also training but with Leoric and Viserys. They train with Idiot Maegor.

**Time Skip**

The King died today. Artemis taught me the King and Queen are even more special than Lords. Should I be King Simba? No I like being Lord Simba. Artemis can be Queen and I will protect her by being the great Lord Simba. My Idiot was not in the castle when the King became sick. Artemis hugs me and cries. Where is my Idiot? I'm going to catch a bird for Artemis, which should make her happy again. After Artemis lets me go I try to go see if any birds are invading my territory. Oh no, that is the big green dragon. I should go back to Artemis. I see my Idiot and the Queen running towards the castle.

That is strange. She is not here but I feel like she is here. I can hear her, she is calling me. I'm coming Artemis, I'll protect you from the big bad dragon. Huh? I don't feel the terror anymore. Of course it is me the great Lord Simba who wouldn't be scared of dragons. I want to see if I can get close to the dragon. It looks at me. Why am I not feeling the terror? The dragon snorts at me and I fly back. Ouch. I hear Artemis worry about me and call me. I should go to her. Hah! No dragon can scare me because I'm the great Lord Simba.

**Time Skip**

We are going to another castle. Artemis calls it the Red Keep. Idiot Maegor is going there and is taking Leoric, Artemis and Viserys with him so Frost and I go with them. Idiot Maegor has now become King Maegor. I shall allow it. Artemis likes to play more with Viserys then me. She is happy so the great Lord Simba will allow puny Viserys to entertain Artemis. Frost and I can feel Leoric and Artemis even if we are not near them. So we can always keep them safe. I'm still not strong or fast enough to scratch my Idiot. I have to get stronger and faster.

The new castle is bigger than Dragonstone. I the great Lord Simba has decided this place is worthy to be my home. It has lots of unwanted rats and birds. Time to kill them and make my home clean. Now I train with Artemis and Leonna as my Idiot is back at Dragonstone. He comes to play with us but not all the time. What is more important than pleasing the great Lord Simba?

**Time Skip**

We are back in Dragonstone. Leonna brought Artemis and Leoric to play with the Rhaena's young humans. I like Aurea and Rhea but Artemis is still best. They like Artemis too. Frost and I kill some birds in the city. Life is good.

Viserys is sick and Artemis is crying. My Idiot and Leonna leave to the Red Keep with Artemis and Leoric. Frost and I go with them. Leonna says it is too late. Viserys smells weird. I don't like that smell. I follow the smell and find Tyanna. I don't like Tyanna. She is always doing something I don't like. I don't think she likes me. That should prove that she is evil. How can anyone not like the great Lord Simba.

**Time Skip**

Ceryse is dead. I saw two humans kill her, they were Tyanna's humans. I need to protect Artemis and start running towards her. I see Leonna on the way and pull her to Ceryse. Leonna is crying. You are in danger, cry later. I feel Artemis panic. I run towards her and find Artemis fighting two humans. My Artemis is strong and fast you puny humans are no match for her. I join the fight and Artemis kills the two humans easily. Leoric and Frost join us. Two humans tried to kill him too and were killed. Leonna comes to us and tells us we have to leave. We leave the Red Keep and go to Leonna's secret house. Leonna leaves for a while and comes back telling we are going to Dragonstone.

We are on a ship and I smell something wrong. I pull Leonna to the smell and she tells me it is Wildfire. It was a trap for us. We kill every one of the ship and my Idiot arrives on his dragon. We fly back to Dragonstone with him after he breaks the ship with his dragon. I the great Lord Simba have protected my Queen.

**Time Skip**

We are not at Dragonstone. We are in the Red Hood Tower. My Idiot wants us to hide while he finds out who is trying to kill us. Leonna is crying. Artemis and Leoric too. My idiot killed Tyanna but wants to find out who sent her. He hugs me and thanks me for saving Leonna, Artemis and Leoric. You are all my subjects, of course I will protect you. I fight my urge to scratch him. I will let him live today and let it be known that the great Lord Simba is merciful.

We get on the ship with a lot of Black Hoods and leave.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**_Howdy Folks! I just learned today that fanfics also have beta testers/readers. So if anyone wants to help me out please send a PM or let me know in the reviews._**


	7. Interlude - Scientist in Westeros

**SHIPS**

In Murder-Death-Kill world the primary and most versatile warships used were the galleys and war galleys. Sailing ships like cogs were used as transport for supplies and merchandise. I knew that back in Earth the next step of the warship evolution was the 'Galleon'. This evolution was made possible by the development of cheap cannons. For war galleys, the galleon was like a fortress, not easy to board and despite its mobility could be shot down by cannons. Summer Islands have a variant of the galleon called the 'Swan Ship' that they use as purely trade vessels. They were sailing ships that didn't rely on oars to for maneuvering. They sailed with the wind and were significantly faster than war galleys at top speeds. I decided to build one galleon and give it a test run to see how it fares against war galleys. I needed something for the offensive. As I had decided not to use gunpowder, cannons were out of the equation. I remember in the show scorpions devastating the Targaryen war galleys. A lucky scorpion shot to the eye was also what killed Meraxes and aunt Rhaenys. We had to a lot of material testing and engineering to fine tune the scorpion for use on the galleon ship in the function of cannons. The scorpions needed to be able to fire projectiles that could take out critical functions of the war-galleys that would attack the galleon ships. The cost and ease of use of projectiles also needed to taken into account.

**CONCRETE**

Material science in Westeros was a weird affair. Apart from the magical materials even the mundane side didn't have much development. Metallurgy had developed to the level of being able to forge carbon steel from iron but nothing much beyond that. That too the Andals learned from the Rhoynar and passed it to the First Men. The maesters had links for smithing and chemistry but were limited to steel and mixing various salts for medicine, farm related stuff and food preservation. Alchemists had bit more advancement in chemistry as they had more success than maesters in figuring out some basic chemical reactions and its uses. An incomplete form of concrete also existed that used lime mortar. It was cheap but didn't have the durability as stone masonry or timber-based buildings so was not used commonly. Living in a volcanic island I had access to plenty of volcanic ash. When volcanic ash is mixed with lime mortar concrete, it becomes the precursor to modern concrete on Earth. It sets slower but is as strong or slightly stronger than modern concrete. The entirety of Acropolis is going to be constructed using stone masonry mixed with concrete.

**GLASS**

During my trip to Casterly Rock I found out that Platinum and Palladium existed there in mind boggling quantities mined over the millennia and were almost considered useless by the maesters and alchemists because of their inert nature. Platinum or Black Siver as it was called only sees use as a maester link to denote mastery in animal husbandry. Palladium is basically considered useless and as an impurity in silver causing it to lose its luster. I almost couldn't hold my laughter at this information and immediately purchased all the possible 'waste' of palladium and bought out the entire market of platinum as it was cheaper than copper. I also made a deal with the Lannisters and Reynes to purchase all their waste silver from their mines. They were extremely happy that I purchased the materials that they had considered as waste. I tried to avoid suspicion about my motives by announcing that I was going to coat my men's armor and all my sigils in silver and adding the material would make it cheaper. My personal sigil was three headed silver dragon on a black background that I chose after our Targaryen hair color. The Westerlander lords thought that I was being a cheap stake by not using 'true' silver. They might have had sispicions but were happy to get paid something for a material that they essentially considered useless. Idiots.

Glass was another item that Westeros didn't produce but imported from Myr. The maesters knew the process, but the quality of glass produced in Myr demanded a level of craftmanship that Westeros didn't have for glassmaking. I didn't want to rock the boat there and cause a trade war, as Myr essentially produced a lot of high-quality luxury goods that almost all the rich Lords of the realm used. Those included paintings, carpets, curtains, lace, blankets and quilts. So, I was just going to use my knowledge of glass making for lenses and keep it a secret within the Templar's artisans. The Myrish only had knowledge of basic silicate glasses and stained glasses. I also had a bonus advantage of abusing the shit out of dragon fire. With dragon fire I could easily melt glass and mold it into the shape I wanted easily. Tempered glass also became a very easy option with the help of dragon fire.

Telescopes were already in use, called as Myrish eye. It was surprising that no one had utilized the same principles to even make a simple microscope. The citadel should have been able to sponsor for the costs incurred. My guess is, the glasses were fragile and expensive so no one wanted to experiment with it. Making borosilicate glass was easy but finding the materials needed to make it took time as I had to figure out what the maesters and alchemists named the materials needed in this world. Gifting Grand Maester Gawen spectacles made him go on a rave on how I was blessed by the Smith for such a magnificent creation. He went on to declare the 'Specs', as I named it, would be the official symbol of the Grand Maester of King's landing. I was hoping he would present it to his fellow maesters in the citadel and would give a spark into lens research and development but apparently, he was fine with just padding his position. Gifting Leonna the first compound microscope made in this world ended up with me spending almost a whole week in carnal bliss.

Back on Earth there was a rat race among material scientists to develop the iron or titanium equivalent of palladium glass. Palladium glass as the name implies is a glassy substance made of palladium resulting in a material that can easily replace the strongest alloy steel in strength, toughness, ductility and hardness. On earth palladium is more expensive then gold and therefore was not suited to be a steel replacement. However, in Westeros I nearly had unlimited access to palladium. After some experimentation with my artisans and using dragon fire I was able to reproduce palladium glass and it fucking delivered. The resulting material was somewhere between Valyrian steel and high carbon steel. I could buy the entirety of Westeros just by selling this, which I didn't do due to obvious reasons. I named the material 'Palass'.

Palass was way stronger than any castle forged steel with nearly less than half the weight of steel and I decided to use it as the primary armor material for my enhanced Templars. Enhanced Templars comprised of nearly two fifths of my entire Templar forces. The plan is to eventually have all the Templars enhanced. It is a very slow transition, as the ritual for the enhancement process requires a live human sacrifice and with Templars enforcing law in the three islands, death row prisoners have significantly gone down. We however get the occasional pirate and bandit raiders who fit the requirement perfectly. Once I have access to deal with the Crownlands and King's Landing I should be able to finish the transition quickly.

Palass was able to stop even stop close range crossbow bolts without puncturing or cracking. Blunt weapons like maces and warhammers were able to dent it like steel. The material naturally had a dark grey color with luster and like steel coated with palladium. The palass plates were worn beneath the templar robes and their light weight helped the mobility of the legions significantly. With bows being our primary weapon doctrine mobility into positions of advantage is significant on the battle field. Palass along with hardened weirwood form the composite recurve bows used by the Templars. The composite bow had a significant advantage over the regular bows used in Westeros. It had a higher draw weight than most bows I tested and was lighter and easier to use compared to other bows. It also has a max range of almost four hundred yards which was higher than the longbows used in Westeros.

**WHITE STEEL**

Magical materials in this world made no sense scientifically. Valyrian Steel is the most absurd of them all. It cannot rust, cannot break, cannot deform, cannot chip and is about one third in weight compared to regular carbon steel of the same quantity of material. It can be reforged by melting it with dragon fire, but still maintains its properties. The only information I had about the material is, Valyrian steel ingots were produced using dragon fire. Dragon fire is magical and mature dragons can control the temperature of the fire they breathe out. I asked mother to help me melt steel ingots with dragon fire to see if there is any change in the material. In my first attempt the material got worse, it was made into to pure iron as the carbon present in steel was burned off. In my second attempt I tried adding carbon into the pure iron mix in the form of charcoal. The strength and hardness of the resulting ingot was higher, but I had essentially just made high carbon steel and the result was expected.

My theory at this point was that another magical material or multiple materials were added to the molten pure iron to make Valyrian steel and knowing the Valyrians' proclivity for blood magic I assumed it was blood. Maybe dragon blood? There is no way any dragon would let me harvest blood for testing a theory. In my third attempt I added powdered dragonbone and dragonscales to the molten iron and it essentially gave me a white colored steel. It was better than castle forged steel, but it wasn't anything abnormal. It would make really hard steel that would eventually cut castle forged steel but against harder substances like palass, or dragonscale it would behave like a regular sword. I really wanted to call it 'Orichalcum' but decided to make it follow the naming terminology of this world and decided to call it 'White Steel'. I made enough ingots to produce seven great swords out of it and gifted it to the Kingsguard knights for them to make it into any weapon they wanted. Not wanting to waste my gift they just made it into seven great swords and called it the 'White Swords'. I guess I started a new tradition there too. I feel sorry for knights aspiring to be Kingsguard that prefer weapons other than great swords.

**WEIRWOOD**

I hit a roadblock as I had no idea how to proceed with my investigation of Valyrian steel. This was before when the Winterfell accident with the weirwood heart tree happened. One of the pieces of information I found out from there was that the weirwood tree is a complicated magical material. The timber is magical and the sap is magical too. The timber is like dragonbone but slightly weaker and heavier. I had no idea what the sap could be used for so I started testing to see what it could do. First thing I noticed was that weirwood timber does not dry naturally and retained the sap even after the carpenters placed it in a low heat, wood drying kiln for a week. Upon increasing the temperature of the kiln we noticed that timber showed signs of case hardening and I was worried that it might become useless. However, the hardened weirwood timber became as strong as dragonbone with an additional shock absorption property. Upon splitting it open we noticed that the sap had spread into the wood and hardened essentially increasing its strength. I have a feeling that this could be further improved by adding blood into the mix but I don't see the need for it and let it be as it was.

**DRAGONHIDE**

So now I had a magical material for blacksmithing in Valyrian steel and woodworking with weirwood. The only material I was missing out was tailoring. I could not find any records of magical thread or yarn from all the records of Valyria that we had and from what Leonna could gain from Hightower archives. Apparently she did her own research into magical thread as it would give her a perfect solution to wear dresses and still be protected. I learned, to my huge disappointment, that boiled leather armor is essentially a weaker version of plate and not as how it was depicted in video games. I could use soft leather like leather jackets on Earth to make it look cooler but it would be equivalent of wearing a linen robe when in battle. Moreover the only magical leather I could think of would be made from dragonhide and the only dead dragon, Meraxes' hide had already decomposed. So no magical leather, and unless dragonhide leather has the magical ability to increase my stats or magic, palass armor is going to be way better than what I predict dragonhide could give. Also I'm pretty sure that I would piss off dragons if I wore dragonhide.

**CLOTH**

The robes that Templars wore over their armor were made of linen layers. Before palass they used it over their laminar and lamellar steel armor that was worn over chain mail for extra protection in case something stray made it through the armor. That is a lot of bulk and the robes were lighter to prevent adding unnecessary weight on their body. These robes would tear apart regularly in combat and had to be repaired or replaced almost after every battle that took place in training or in the field. It was the downside of choosing robes over cloaks. Cloaks could be discarded easily in battle while robes not that easily so it was designed in such a way that the robes would be used alongside the armor. Losing cloaks could be a problem too so there was no clear victory situation for me here. However Templars with palass could wear bulkier robes and that meant less replacements and more repairs for robes. It kept the costs down and also proved that eventually all the Templars will have to switch to palass armor.

I wanted to try mixing the linen with the weirwood sap to see if it gives any improvements. I tried the way I did with weirwood to see if it gets absorbed into the linen and making it strong but there was no improvement in the properties of the material. I started experimenting with other materials like cotton, wool and silk. Wool and cotton performed similar to linen and showed no improvement. Silk however showed improvement with the sap and proved to be the strongest thread we could make. Testing it with knives and swords showed that this material was indeed enhanced by the sap. I was durable enough that unless it was directly over steel or palass plate and a sword cut it in the perfect angle it wouldn't tear. It was still very flexible and couldn't protect against blows but it was the perfect material to prevent cuts. An arrow or crossbow bolt could still punch through it as it is a woven material and not completely solid.

Silk was very light and could be made into several layers without increasing the weight and bulk like linen. However, it was also the most expensive material used for clothing, so commissioning a silk robe for every Templar would empty my coffers. This world also doesn't have jute or has no mention of it. It made sense with how jute required tropical weather and the only tropical region so far in the known world is Sothoryos which is assumed to be uninhabited. I wondered how much stuff we could discover by exploring that continent then remembered tales of explorers all dying and immediately change my mind to not tempt fate.

**SILK**

I looked into this world's silk and found out that it all originated from Yi Ti. From all the data I have gathered about that place I figure out that place is the equivalent to medieval China in this world. I figured that since they held a monopoly they would be unwilling to share silkworms if I asked then nicely. I commissioned two squads of Aspirant rank Templars for the great silk theft. One squad was to bring back mulberry trees or its equivalent and its cultivation methods and the other was to bring back the silk worms. Each Templar squad consists of ten members with the squad leader holding the rank of an Adept. The members of the squad were the lowest rank in the Order and were either Aspirants or Initiates. Initiates who go through the enhancement ritual gain the rank Aspirant and only Aspirants can be promoted to higher ranks. I have yet to see an Aspirant lose to an Initiate in our training exercises. If two monks could do that on Earth, my Templars could do it better.

They did a splendid job. We started a small farm in the outskirts of Dragonsurf and started sericulture there. A group of Templar artisans were trained to handle the farm and we waited for the results. It was decently successful as we were able to make silk but it was a slow process. We couldn't improve the speed without increasing the amount of personnel involved in farming for silk. I didn't want to hire Templars for farming silk, so I did the next best thing. Gave it to Lord Celtigar of Claw Isle. I gave him all the necessary resources to start a silk farm and the instructions on how to do it. Fifty percent of any silk produced would be first sold to us at a significantly reduced price and I allowed him to price fix the silk for the rest of the realm. I didn't want to cheapen its value by flooding it in the realm as long as I got it for a cheap price. I think I saw his eyes glitter at the prospect of making all that money from the silk. He was going to pay tax to us anyways so I was essentially double dipping. I just hoped the worms would survive the next winter.

Meanwhile I also tried to commission mother and Leonna to magically enhance the silkworms to see if the worms could produce the enhanced silk directly. The idea was immediately shot down by both of them as apparently magically enhancing bugs could lead to apocalyptic scenarios. Maybe once I fully figure out the magic system of this world completely I could give it a try.

**BLACK STEEL**

The next material I wanted to try the weirwood sap on was steel. I was back to attempting my next Valyrian steel idea by fusing dragon fire molten steel with the sap and blood. The resulting ingot was similar to white steel but was pitch black. At this point I was sure that the world was fucking with me and laughing at me fumbling around with steel. Now I had 'Black Steel' that I can't even give to Kingsguard. Maybe Night's Watch? I just made arming swords for the Templars from the material that I made and gave it to the highest ranking members as a both combat and decorative weapon. Then later I found out another property of both white and black steel. **They don't rust.** So I was a little happy that I'm maybe twenty percent on my way to figuring out Valyrian steel. It was then I decided to equip all the knights in Silver Hand with full black steel gear.


	8. Act 1 - 6 Unrest among Deities

**Acropolis, Dragonstone Island 37 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

It has been close to a year since father died and Aenys ascended the Iron Throne. His reign started with a bang, by that I mean the Blackfyre controversy. It was a significant facepalm moment for the family when he declared his reasoning. He apparently did it as a measure to curb attempts at sowing discord between us brothers by showing that he trusted the ancestral greatsword in Maegor's hands. The Lords however saw that as a sign of weakness when he gave the sword to Maegor. Rumors started to spread that he was weak willed among the Lords. The entire realm soon became a powder keg set to explode. The Lords wanted things to go back to how it was before the Conquest but were not willing to say it out loud out of the fear for our dragons.

The Riverlands were the first region where it started to blow up. A bandit calling himself the Red Harren, supposed grandson of Harren the Black, seized Harrenhal and killed Lord Qoherys. The Lord killed was the perfect example of a sick, power abusing pervert. One of his favorite hobbies was going around deflowering girls among the smallfolk of his demesne. It was basically a smallfolk rebellion so Aenys didn't take it seriously. Aenys assumed that the rebellion would soon fizzle out, as they had taken out their target. He even made plans to bestow Harrenhal to House Harroway once it happened.

Meanwhile, in the Iron Islands a Drowned God cult started an uprising after gathering a lot of support and followers. The Ironborn were just glorified pirates and slavers. I still have no idea why father allowed them control over the islands. The islands should have been split between Riverlands and Westerlands after the Conquest. Again, it was an internal issue and Aenys didn't want to interfere in their affairs. Seriously the best-case scenario for us would be if they ended up killing each other and ending their existence.

The third event happened in the Dornish Marches. The Dornish fucks seeking revenge for the events during the First Dornish War formed an insurrection under an outlaw known as the Vulture King. Technically he was denounced by the Dornish Princess, Deria Martell, but we were all aware that the insurrection was secretly sponsored by them. The Dornish assumed that Aenys was a weak ruler due to his stupid antics and decided to probe us through this supposed bandit. Initially it was just hit and run banditry in the Dornish Marches. However last week they managed to burn down Blackhaven, the seat of House Dondarrion, and their numbers were rumored to have swelled to thirty thousand. Since they were technically not part of our regime and were considered an exterior force, the Templars were deployed. We still didn't announce ourselves as Templars but just as a fighting force of House Targaryen. Two legions were deployed as we had heard rumors of the Vulture king working in tandem with Lord Walter Wyl of House Wyl. These were the same fucks that cut off uncle Orys' hand during the First Dornish War.

The final event happened in the Vale. Ironically it was also the first event to be resolved. Jonos Arryn, the younger brother of Lord Ronnel Arryn had taken his brother captive in his own castle after inciting a rebellion. Aenys was furious and with reason. This had the potential to blow into a full war in the Vale and with potential for North involvement as Lady Anya Arryn née Stark was the sister of Lord Brandon Stark. These guys were supposed to be the pinnacle of Andal nobility and attempting to usurp a brother's lordship does not look like what is preached out of the Seven-Pointed Star. Fucking hypocrites. Aenys immediately ordered Maegor to fly to the Vale and put an end to this idiocy, giving Maegor permission to deal with the rebels as he saw fit.

**Flashback - A few weeks back – Eyrie 37 AC**

**Maegor Targaryen**

The castle really looks beautiful looking from up here. I probably would have some time to explore the castle later when the situation calms down. As Balerion starts its descent I notice that there are no rebel forces manning the towers or the battlements of the castle. I ask it to let out a roar and Balerion does let loose a loud roar. We circle around the castle in the air and find a spot to land near the main keep entrance. I notice a few men near the keep entrance and they look scared. Good.

"In the name of King Aenys Targaryen, first of his name, King of the Andals and First Men, I Maegor Targaryen have been granted authority to put an end to rebellious forces at the Eyrie. Who is in command here?" I proclaim as I unsheathe Blackfyre.

One of the men steps forward shaking and speaks up.

"I am, Your Grace."

"Where is Lord Ronnel Arryn?" I snarl at the man.

The man gulps and responds, "Lord Jonos has Lord Ronnel held captive in the keep, Your Grace."

"I will give you and your men twenty minutes. If I don't see Lord Ronnel and his family safe and Jonos in chains, I will burn down this entire castle. Did I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes, Your Grace." The man stammers and scampers off with his men into the keep.

I really hope this could be ended without me having to intervene. I don't want to burn such a beautiful castle because of stupid Andals. Maybe I can cook it like father did to Harrenhal, that way I can still explore the castle once the rebels are dead.

**Twenty minutes later**

I don't know what to think of the situation. Ronnel is dead, killed by his own brother. Apparently on hearing Balerion's roar Jonos in a fit of rage decided to kill his own brother. Ronnel had let himself be caught in a hostage situation so that his loyal forces could keep his wife and children safe. The one that I spoke to earlier was one of Jonos' men. The threat of a dragon was enough to switch loyalties. The loyalist forces protecting Lady Arryn and the two daughters brought them out after the rebels surrendered. Right now in front of me Lady Arryn is standing with her daughters all tearing up upon hearing the news of Ronnel's death. Lady, your husband sacrificed himself for you and your children, be proud. The older daughter, Sharra, a very pretty maiden was the heir to Ronnnel, I wonder if mother would approve of her if I wanted to marry her. She only has half Andal blood as the other half is the Builder's blood. The younger one, Laina, would be around the same age of Leoric and Artemis. Finally, the cause of this madness, chained and on his knees in front of me. I just want to feed him to Balerion.

"Kinslayer, what madness drove you to kill your own brother." I ask him as I pull on his hair.

He attempts to spit on me and I land a light kick on his gut.

He groans for a few moments and answers, "He was no true brother of mine. He bent his knees to abominations in the Eyes of the Seven. Ignored our traditions by making that heathen daughter his heir. I should have been the rightful heir. It was my duty to correct that mistake."

Another fanatic added with jealousy. It's just as Rhaegor says, fanatics need to be on our side else they need to be put down. I punch his face breaking his jaw, I don't need to hear anything more from him.

"It is very funny that you use the Faith to defend your actions. It's the same Faith that says 'no man is so accursed as the kinslayer' and 'the kinslayer is accursed in the eyes of gods and men'. In the end you are just an honorless and traitorous piece of shit.

I want all the traitors chained and moved to the dungeons. Send ravens to the lords of Vale and ask them to be here to swear their fealty to Lady Sharra Arryn in two weeks' time. Also get the maester to make sure the kinslayer will survive the two weeks."

It is going to be a nightmare to resolve the fallout of today's events.

**Two weeks later**

Resolving the succession issue went better than I expected. Ronnel had a cousin Hubert who had a claim for the Lordship. Fortunately, he had a son Darnold who is around the same age of Sharra. Proposing a marriage and unifying their claims ended that problem. The marriage was set to be a month from today, ignoring the traditional mourning period as the region needed stability and not another attempt by local disgruntled lords to sow discord.

As for the kinsalyer and the rebels I gave them the option of being hung to death or being eaten by Balerion. I wasn't going to let taking the Black even be an option for them. I respect the Night's Watch and that order doesn't not need rebel scum joining their ranks. I also ordered the kinslayer's name be removed from all records that existed and that he would be only remembered as The Kinslayer of House Arryn. I believe it is a fitting punishment and enough of a deterrent for anyone in the future attempting to do what he did.

Meanwhile I did enjoy my time in the Eyrie and was able to explore this beautiful castle. Unlike most other impossible castles in Westeros, this one was built purely by the Andals. Just really good tactical sense in making use of the natural defenses provided by the mountain. The Mountain Kings were really idiots to have such a wonderful place and not use it to its full strength. The design has given me some new ideas that I could use in future. I want to improve the Red Keep and transform it in to a completely impregnable fortress. I probably won't have time for it till after the Acropolis is completed.

**Back to present - Acropolis, Dragonstone Island 37 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

The way we dealt with the kinslayer brought back the fear of dragons in the hearts of the realm Lords. So far no one else has attempted to do stupid stuff. Currently I am right in the middle of preparing for the first true battle for the Templars. The First Legion will be under my command and the First Master will be taking command over the Second Legion. We just had finished the construction of our first fleet of ships so the plan is to head out to Storm's End on our own ships and then link up with uncle Orys' forces from there. I just hope we don't die to a shipwreck caused by some random storm.

The Braavosi shipwrights that I brought over to Dragonstone did a splendid job in teaching the ways of shipbuilding to the Templar artisans. Most of the shipwrights wanted to join the Order as the pay was probably double of what they made in Braavos. They still weren't aware of the Order's full range of operations and I wasn't going to expose that to Braavos. I explained to them about the blood oath required to join the order. Blood oaths are a very tricky business. The parties under the oath have to be consenting to the oath and it is a permanent binding unless the oath has a set time limit. The Templar oath was designed by mother and me with the sole purpose of ensuring the secrecy of the order and the loyalty of the members. Members can choose to leave the order but they will never be able to talk about the order or act against House Targaryen.

About two thirds of the Braavosi folk accepted the blood oath and became part of the Templar shipwright team. The remaining chose to remain in Dragonsurf and join the city's shipyards which primarily was producing civilian vessels and vessels for the Royal Navy. Right around this time we had finished the construction work at King's Landing for the fortress. It came to be known as the Red Keep because of the red sandstone that was primarily used for it construction. Fucking called it. Aenys gave Maegor and me permission to build the naval base on Dragonstone. We found the perfect location with deep waters for our port and construction of the base started. I wanted the base to be a Templar only settlement. I named the place Acropolis after the famous ancient Greek city. The inhabitants of the town adjoining the base would be families of the Templar members. The region was also perfect for farming. I could see this town become the next city of the Island. Probably several generations down the line since the limitation to Templars will be in place. The town would be fully fortified with layers of walls with the innermost wall protecting the castle, the port and shipyards. The shipyards and port would be protected from the sea by natural land formations. Any ship attempting to infiltrate would be dealt with easily by land based defenses. Sieges would be dealt with the Royal Navy stationed in Dragonsurf and the Silver Hand.

Silver Hand were created that the same time as Templars and Hospitallers but they served a very simple and singular purpose. They would be the entirety of staff serving the royal family at Dragonstone Castle. This included knights and maids to even the cooks and other servants. A big castle like Dragonstone has a lot of servants and it was very easy for someone to slip in and do something nasty to us with essentially close to seventy percent of the Westeros nobility holding a grudge on us. The Silver Hand is the literal last line of defense for us in Dragonstone castle.

Dragonstone castle is an extremely well defended castle with the Dragonmont on one side, very steep cliffs on the back and very steep cliffs leading into deep sea on the other side. So the front gate is the only approach to attack the castle. The gate has a drawbridge that has a hundred feet deep moat, with a river flowing, underneath it. In the show during Robert's Rebellion, Stannis' backstory mentioned that he was sent to capture the Targaryens from Dragonstone and he failed as the Targaryens had escaped when he made it to the keep of Dragonstone castle. The only way he gained entry into Dragonstone castle without dragons was if he had inside help. The show Targs were betrayed and they were forced into exile. I built upon that idea and decided that the castle should only be manned by people who are completely loyal to House Targaryen. I proceeded to ask mother about this topic.

**Flashback – Dragonstone Castle 27 AC**

The door to my study opens and mother comes in looking a bit tired. Must have been a busy day today.

"What did you want to talk to me about? I thought we sorted out the training details already." She asked me as she takes a seat opposite to mine.

I get up to close the door and seal the room.

"Is that really necessary? We are in Dragonstone. Your paranoid imagination really has no limits." She asks me with a gentle smile.

"Once I explain you will see why I did it."

"Of course, explain away." She says as she pours herself a drink.

"Mother do you remember the dream I spoke to you about a few years back?"

"Yes, we lose our dragons and get exiled, Long Night happens and Others descend on Westeros. They deserved it for exiling our family." She replies with a smug smile.

Ah yes, the first time I tried explaining the events of the show to mother I reached a dead end on the question how I knew. Explaining the mechanics of a TV show based on a series of incomplete books that the directors butchered in the last two/three seasons would be a nightmare. I just pulled the dragon dreams excuse out of thin air and it worked perfectly. I gave her a concise version focusing mainly on our house.

"Yes we both agree on that. I have been having similar dreams but usually it is about irrelevant happenings of how Boltons kill Starks or Freys kill Tullys or Lannisters killing themselves. Recently I had a dream about how our descendants were exiled. They had to flee Dragonstone castle." I add with a serious tone.

She frowned at me and asked, "Why?"

"We were betrayed. The invading force were let in by men within the castle, else there is no way a castle that could withstand a siege for nearly a decade when fully prepared would fall." I explain process of Stannis' siege.

"Did you see it or infer it from the events you saw?" she asked me as she poured herself another drink.

"I inferred it. I saw the Usurper give command to capture the royal family at Dragonstone and then I see the pregnant Queen flee with her son and loyal retainers and knights. She dies to childbirth complications while giving birth to the girl who hatches dragons again. The timing doesn't add up for a successful siege and lines up perfectly for a betrayal." I explain as I pour myself a drink.

I'm technically not lying to her as I'm still not sure if I'm in a fictional world or a parallel world where GRRM got inspired from. All I know is the events of the show is highly likely to happen and I need to do whatever I can to prevent the downfall of our family. To think uncle Orys' descendants were the ones who exiled us in a petty fight over a girl makes me laugh and would probably make him laugh too if he heard it.

Mother looks a bit shaken at the reveal. She is silently staring daggers into her glass.

"So this is the reason you were looking about oaths in the library." She finally responds and surprising me completely.

"H-how? Were you spying on me?" I ask her getting a bit irritated.

She laughs and responds, "Stop acting like a petulant child. I just happened to visit the library when you were asleep on the table with the scrolls and your notes spread around you. I didn't want to disturb you, so I left. I knew you would eventually come to me to discuss the matter if it was important. So did you find what you were looking for?"

Now I feel embarrassed and apparently it showed on my face as she starts laughing harder.

"Fine, I'm an idiot. Yes, that was the reason I was looking into oaths. I wanted to see if there is a way to make our retainers and servants completely loyal to us."

Now that I mention it aloud it sounds wrong, almost like brainwashing. I guess I'm actually looking for a geas. Then again, if it will guarantee the safety of my family, I really don't care about the moral implications.

She looks at me with a raised eyebrow and replies, "I'm surprised. You agree with Aenys' idea of improving the condition of smallfolk from near slavery but you would do something like this?"

Ah she is got me there, I'm really taking their choice away from them.

"Don't look so defeated, I was just curious and you still haven't answered my question. Did you find a way?"

Wait what?

"I can still do it?" I ask her totally confused.

She gets up walks to me and pulls me into a hug. Hugs are good.

"My sweet boy, when have I denied you anything, especially when it comes to the safety of our family? I will admit, I was allowing Aenys and you to build your fantasy castles in air just to see how soon you will realize the folly of your way of thinking."

I pull out of the hug and stare at her. Wait what? My confusion only increases.

"Folly of our way of thinking? What do you mean by that?"

She ruffles my hair and leans back on the table and explains

"So tell me Rhaegor, what would happen if smallfolk are given complete freedom and choice to do what they want? There are no ranks and everyone is equal in this situation. You know human nature, while honest men will exist, some would try to take the easy way out. They would resort to banditry and raiding the honest men for their belongings. Now those honest men are too weak to protect themselves and would need the help of someone strong enough to protect them and to suppress the bandits. This strong warrior or leader who agrees to protect the weak won't do it just out of pure good in his heart as it won't feed his family. So he will demand a payment or tribute from the men under his protection."

She pauses for a few moments and continues,

"Eventually the leader has enough men under his protection that he designates the lands he is protecting as his own to prevent other leaders from interfering with his men. He becomes the Lord of these lands. At the same time other Lordships with similar lands will form in the nearby areas. Human nature comes into play again, the Lords want more lands and better lands as it will increase both his power and wealth. So they fight with nearby Lords in an attempt to take over those lands. Eventually one Lord becomes strong enough that all the nearby Lords accept his strength and superiority and agree to be under his protection. Now this strong Lord wants to differentiate between himself and the other Lords so he calls himself King. This is the basic idea on how our realm works.

Now this where things start to go wrong. What if you have a King or Lord who doesn't care about the lives of the people he has promised to protect? What if the King or Lord dies and his heir doesn't have the strength needed to protect his people? You will have a rebellion from either the Lords or mayhaps even the smallfolk themselves. In the both the situations the best solution would be to replace the King or Lord with someone who would perform their duties towards those under their protection."

Wait a minute. I can see similarities of this situation to something I learned in school back on Earth.

"'Noblesse Oblige', the wealthy, powerful and privileged have a duty to protect and provide to those who aren't." I voice the thoughts in my head.

"I see. You did have nobility in your previous world too. So what happened?" she asked me with a curious face.

"The Kings and Lords became weak, the peasants revolted and established democracies where they chose their leader. In some places the merchants and bankers became extremely powerful and ended up in a situation where rulers cannot win the support of the people without their help. In some places religion was how the rulers won the people's support. In some places men who amassed personal power ruled directly by enforcing their will almost like Kings."

"Intriguing, back to our discussion, what Aenys and you propose would essentially give rise to a situation where Lords would be eliminated from the society and that will not work. However it could be done in a way so that the Lords will still have power but they still have to perform their duties towards the people they protect. The smallfolk in the realm have been under the rule of these Lords for millennia, they have forgotten that it was them who agreed to be under the protection of those Lords. A lord without smallfolk to protect, is just a warrior. The Lords will have to concede that they don't have absolute power over the people and we will have to worry about ruling only the Lords and leave the smallfolk in the hands of capable Lords. The Lords will not have time to plot against us when they have to worry about their stability in the first place."

I guess that would be the optimal solution to ensure the stability of House Targaryen as the undisputed rulers of Westeros.

"It is not going to be easy to achieve it. Having dragons on our side to beat down any ambitious Lordling would send a message to other Lords too." I ponder loudly.

She laughs and ruffles my hair again saying, "It is still not your time to worry about that. You are still just a child. I'm happy that you are willing to see our House prosper even if it means binding others to us magically. We are of House Targaryen, we are dragon blooded, and we are strong, selfish and protective. Don't feel guilty when it is completely natural for us to protect what is ours, even if the path is considered questionable by others. Did you find anything about blood oaths?"

"No. Is that what it is called?" I ask with excitement.

"It is. I have a tome about the rituals involving such oaths in my study. However for such an oath to truly hold the ones who swear the oath would have to know the full consequences of the act and be completely willing to do so. It cannot be forced. The closer they are to our bloodline the more binding the oath becomes. So if you want complete loyalty to House Targaryen you will find it easier to have those with Targaryen or dragon blood take the oath than maybe an Andal."

"How does it make a difference?" I'm really curious about the mechanics of this as all my future plans will rest on this.

"If an Andal with no dragon lineage swears a blood oath, the oath will be limited to what he considers as natural or to be more precise what his lineage considers as natural. For our purposes, even after the blood oath they will find our traditions as repulsive despite them being loyal to us."

"You mean like our incest marriages?"

"Correct, our disregard for the Seven Pointed Star and the Faith would be among those too."

So I can make them Loyal to our House but I cannot ask them give up on the Faith. Dammit. I guess it's only Valyrians for the Templars then. I don't think anyone else would even accept the Dragon Gods. Templar plans need revision.

**Back to present - Acropolis Base, Dragonstone Island 37 AC**

Silver Hand had two divisions the combat and support divisions. The combat division comprised of all the guards of Dragonstone castle while the support division employed the servants and other support staff in the castle. The combat division comprised of eight hundred knights fully armed, blood sworn and enhanced like the Templars. They looked like ordinary Westerosi knights, as Dragonstone castle was frequented by various Lords and folks from the rest of the realm, I wanted to maintain the same hierarchy and look for these knights. The combat division's leader was called Knight Commander and he was in charge of all the knights in his division.

The support division consisted of four hundred men and women also trained in combat and blood sworn and carried out the tasks they were assigned to. The Castellan of Dragonstone was in charge of the support division. The Castellan and Knight Commander reported to mother who was the Queen of Dragonstone. The title used to be Warrior Queen before her loss to Rhaena. Rhaena is being groomed by mother to take over the operations of the castle as her successor. She was very enthusiastic about the idea but after the birth of our second twins all she has been doing is complain about the work. Thankfully, Leonna has been a great help on that side as she had finally expanded the Hospitallers to ten Paladins who are all employed in babysitting duty.

After I gave armor and weapons made from black steel to the Silver Hand knights. They were looking like Dark Souls characters. It did look scary but also a lot creepy. I added some platinum emboss to the armor with the Targaryen sigil to make it slightly better.

The time we started constructing ships I had already figured out to make hardened weirwood timber. However, I didn't want to make my first fleet out of that. I still made it out of ironwood we imported from the North. The Starks did take heed to my advice and rebuilt their fleet. As for mounting scorpions on the Galleons we finally managed to scale down the existing scorpions a bit and made it similar to the one Euron Greyjoy used in the show. It has a fire rate of two spears per minute with three men operating each scorpion. A single good shot from it could disable a war galley completely if it hit the mast or the keel of the ship. The spears were the most expensive aspect of the setup. They looked like lances and could rip open any wooden ship that sailed the seas. The height advantage prevented easy boarding of the ship and anyone attempting to climb up the sides of the hull were met with arrows from the Templars aboard the ship. The scorpion itself was made with black steel and hardened weirwood.

The plan is to travel by sea to Storm's End and then link up with the Stormlander forces and bring down the Vulture King. The galleon would be leaving with a crew of four hundred Templars including me. The remaining would travel in the war galleys of our own design. The war galleys were powered by both sails and oars, sails when we had favorable winds. With around two hundred men per war-galley we had a fleet of ten war-galleys that were following the galleon. The galleon could sail for around two hundred miles in one day because of its speed and the war galleys travelled at half that speed at around one hundred miles per day.

I was expecting four days of travel on the galleon and eight days for the war galleys as the worst case scenario. The first two days of sailing went without a hitch with smooth seas and favorable winds, as we entered deeper into Stormlands territorial waters I understood why this place was called Stormlands. It was baptism by multiple storms for my marine Templars. They did a splendid job and we weathered the storms without any major issue. We all had our training working with the Velaryon trading fleet and the Royal Navy and thank goodness that didn't turn out to be a waste of our time. By the end of the third day we were nearing the coastal waters of Evenfall Hall. Some opportunistic pirates thought we were free food and tried to attack us. It made sense, the ships were using my personal sigil and we looked similar to a swan ship from distance.

They were in two galleys and the ships looked old but decent enough. I could have shot and sunk them both but I order my men to just shoot one ship, the scorpions did their job perfectly, completely stalling the pirate ship. I knew the men were bored so I decided to play the game of who has the most head shots. Well as expected, Legate Gradon won the game. Next time I should exclude than man from the game, he can shoot almost as fast as I can with accuracy and I'm doing it with bloodline hacks. I guess training everyday does improve skills. Too bad I have princely duties to do else I would be training all day too. We ransack their ships and were left disappointed when they had nothing of value other than some coin they probably pillaged from a helpless village. We retrieve the scorpion spears that we can from the stalled ship and then continue our journey.

After an extra day of fumbling around we finally reach Storm's End. We might have gone off route multiple times and realized it too late. That was the main reason for our delay. I realized what the issue was with us using the winds to sail we often didn't know for sure if we were going in the correct direction. We needed a compass and this world doesn't have one. I should look into the magnetic properties of this world and construct a working compass. I should be able to find some lodestone from the magnetite iron ores.

We are received by the Baratheon party at Storm's end. Wow, the Baratheon family has grown big in recent years. I order the men to unload stuff including the scorpions. They should be deadly against charging enemy forces especially cavalry.

I get down on solid ground and proceed to hug uncle Orys.

"It is good to see you uncle."

"It is good to see you too Rhaegor. Heard you had another pair of brats, the Gods really do smile on you," he replies patting my back and releasing me from the hug.

"Ah I guess that is true. I did get lucky three times." I smile at him and look around at his family who had gathered to receive us.

I see his sons Aeros, Davos and Raymont standing behind uncle with their wives and kids. Raymont was a Kingsguard who must have been sent by Aenys to deal with the Vulture. I spot Borys among the brats and notice he is about a couple of inches taller than me.

"You ever going to stop growing nephew?" I ask my seven year younger nephew jokingly after a hug.

He smirks and replies, "You know, I can't wait for the day to kick your behind in the training yard one of these days, uncle."

"Wow, you really have grown up. I can't remember the last time you spoke a sentence to me without swearing like a pirate" I taunt him

"You-"

"Enough," uncle Orys interrupts Rogar. Damn, he fell for the bait too. "We should be getting back to the castle Rhaegor."

That is true. We have a lot of stuff to plan before we start our march against the Vulture King and it is going to take a few days for the rest of my ships to arrive. We started to walk towards the castle of Storm's End.

Storm's End has a very interesting history that goes back to the Age of Heroes. It was constructed by the first Storm King Durran Godsgrief. He has a really crazy backstory even among the Heroes. He was supposed to fallen in love with the daughter of the Sea God and the Goddess of Wind, Elenei. He somehow managed to win her love too but her parents didn't like it and opposed it. They eloped and guess what? That pissed of the gods. Apparently they struck at the wedding killing everyone except the couple. For gods, they had really poor accuracy, I'm guessing Durran had plot armor. Durran of course being a Hero declared war on the gods. The gods wanted to show who is boss and destroyed all his castles. Durran, in return, like any sane man would do, decided to build a castle directly at the seat of both the god's powers to taunt them. He took help from the Children of the Forest and Bran the Builder and finished building Storm's End as a gigantic 'Fuck You' to the two gods. The funny thing is after millennia of being exposed to the weathering forces of Shipbreaker's Bay the castle still looks like it was constructed with the last decade. I need to bring Maegor here and do some research. I might get new information about the Builder's magic that could be used for in Acropolis. It will have to wait till after the Vulture Hunt is over.

**One week later**

Looks like the staging point for the men leading the insurrection was Wyl. From scout reports we estimated the original force that started from Wyl to be around six thousand. The forces have been growing as the armies pillaged the local Lords and gathered more smallfolk support and by the time they burned Blackhaven their size swelled to thirty thousand. It was here that they decided to split forces and move in opposite directions. I guess to cover more ground? It was a stupid move. The Vulture King was going up against the knights of the Reach and if he had any idea of what he is doing he would have used all the pikes he could get his hands on against the Reach cavalry. If he wanted to distract the Storm Lords from flanking him he would have sent a much smaller and mobile force maybe around five thousand to burn and pillage the Stormlands to keep the Storm Lords occupied here. Well, now we have two smaller hosts of roughly fifteen thousand each.

Master Lucas and Legate Dramen left with the Second Legion and their support staff yesterday to join the Reach host that were forming a stand Nightsong. Their orders were to cut off their retreat and ensure the complete destruction of the Vulture King's forces. I also ordered them to cut off the sword arms of all the nobility that were marching with the Vulture King. I'm going to send a nice gift to Deria Martell. We lost a lot of small folk lives to these Dornish fucks and they are going to pay for it. Well I'm technically here to make the statement 'Don't tickle a sleeping dragon'.

The First Legion under my command are to march with the Storm Lords to Stonehelm where Lord Walter Wyl is marching with his half of the insurrection force. We estimate our march to take two weeks to reach Stonehelm assuming that nothing goes wrong. My personal estimate for the entire force is three weeks. With just the Templars I could have managed it in ten days as marching thirty miles a day is not an absurd idea for us. However, Lord Wyl's forces is mainly comprised of Dornish smallfolk and they are going to take their sweet time reaching Stonehelm so even the slow march is not a big issue for us.

Our forces roughly number around eight thousand men. That is includes the one thousand cavalry archers that are my Templar forces. I chose to deploy them as cavalry archers for two main reasons. First, I prefer the mobility it gives us. We outrange even longbows with the palass weirwood composite bow and we can easily keep out of range of their archers and still rain death on them as they won't be protected by heavier armor. Second, it would be easier on a cavalry unit to finish off the forces when they break and try to escape. I don't plan on letting anyone part of the invading army leave alive. The light weight of palass armor gave us a significant advantage of being a unit of fast cavalry archers in full plate armor. The Stormlander forces comprised of about five thousand heavy cavalry and remaining were infantry.

I was surprised when uncle Orys wanted to join the Hunt. The man is in his late sixties, counting the twenty percent time dilation that takes it to his early eighties in Earth standards. I tried dissuading him and all I got in reply was, "I have a chance to go out in glory and I'm not going to waste it". We will be starting the march later today and I guess I have to make his revenge against the Dornish extra special.

**Three weeks later**

We take three weeks to reach Stonehelm much to the annoyance of uncle Orys. Fucking called it. Stonehelm is the seat of House Swann, it holds a strategic position at the estuary of river Slayne that forms a significant river transport route. The Swanns are an old house that have probably been governing these lands since the Age of Heroes. They do claim to be the oldest Marcher Lord. The region that lies in the intersection between Dorne, Reach and Stormlands is called the Dornish Marches and the Lords in these areas are called Marcher Lords.

The small folk in the region had already been warned of the invading host and were asked to retreat to Stonehelm. The castle had been already been stocked and prepared for an incoming siege. I do not believe that the incoming force has the necessary discipline or equipment to properly siege a castle. Most probably they would try attacking and noticing that we are turtled up would move towards their next target destroying everything in their path. Lord Wyl's forces are about a week away from Stonehelm. My scouts were able to gather intel about the chain of command and the composition of the invading force. Looks like we might have slightly over prepared for this stupid battle. I guess we will have to play who has the most headshots again. If the situation is the same for the other host of the invaders, I doubt that it is any different, I won't have to worry about the Second Legion either.

**One week later**

It is the break of dawn. We are ready, hiding our forces behind a hill. The battle plan was simple. Let the wave of invaders be stopped by the castle walls while the defenders rain down arrows from the walls and towers. The infantry were placed inside the castle in case the invaders manage to break through. The heavy cavalry led by uncle Orys were to charge into their ranks from one side and the cavalry archers led by me were to rain down death on them adding support to the charging heavy cavalry. Once they break we finish the rout.

My latest scout reported that something had changed in their composition. Their frontlines were way more organized than we had expected them to be. I guess they spent some time drilling the smallfolk pikemen. If they hold the line during the heavy cavalry charge they might be able to overwhelm the knights with sheer numbers. I guess it falls to us to make sure that doesn't happen. I pass my orders to the legion. We will target their archers in the first two volleys and then the spearmen. I have faith in my men's accuracy and unless they are heavily armored, the strategy should still work.

We hear uncle Orys's horn and that is the signal for them starting their charge. We start our charge as well. Once I have line of sight, I take a moment to scan the battlefield to see what is going on. As expected it is an exchange of arrow fire between the invaders and the defenders on the walls and their infantry attempting to scale the walls with ladders. One we get in range we let our first volley loose. We are able to take out around one third of the archers, this is looking good. The heavy cavalry charge however, was faster than expected and they would be making contact before the third volley could be released so I command half my men to target the second volley on the pikemen while the other half continue bombarding the archers. The infantry frontline of pikemen confused by the sudden rain of arrows panic and break formation. Perfect. The heavy cavalry completes their charge and ram into the now disordered pikemen just as we let loose our third volley. After the sixth volley we decide to ignore the remaining archers and focus on the backlines and we move in to position to intercept any deserters as the heavy cavalry are running riot within their ranks. The infantry forces within the castle also decide to charge into the battle around this time. I guess everyone wants in on the action. So the invaders were boxed in with heavy cavalry on one side, the infantry along with the castle archers on the front side and the cavalry archers raining death on them from behind. Their only option is to move towards the river side.

The enemy commanders realized that their forces are broken and try to organize a retreat. I see Lord Wyl among them, I take aim and shoot an arrow right into Lord Wyl's shoulders and he falls off his horse. My men do the same for the other commanders as we don't want to kill them yet and if they manage to organize a retreat we might end up killing them accidentally. Thus with the fall of their command structure the invaders become completely disorganized and it turns in to a full scale slaughter of the Dornish forces. I send a squadron to retrieve the commanders and kill all their guards. Another squadron takes control of the enemy supply wagons and we wait for the battle to end while killing anyone who attempts to flee our way.

**Later in that day**

The victory feast was a spirited event. The Stormlanders know how to throw a party. It took us till around midday to finish battle completely. We burnt the bodies of the invaders in big pyres as we didn't want them to rot and cause other headaches for the people in the nearby areas. The commanders were captured and taken to the dungeons of the castle. I guess they were tortured for information. I really don't believe in torture as it just makes them say what we want to hear and in rare cases they break enough to spill the actual truth. I have other ways of getting information out of my targets. Lord Wyl had his arms and legs cut off by uncle Orys, I guess he finally got his vengeance for his loss. Uncle Orys suffered a concussion and took some hits in the battle today during the cavalry charge but he seemed to be doing better at the feast. After the feast, I made sure that my men had their needs taken care of and decided to call it a night when I was waylaid by my nephews Rogar and Borys along with cousin Davos.

"What are you idiots doing?" I was really confused by what was going on

"Shut up and just follow us," came a reply from Davos.

I continued to follow the trio and I was taken into a room with ladies and other young lords, who fought today, having some sort of orgy party. Apparently the smallfolk ladies wanted to thank us for saving their lives and lands from the Vulture host and this after party was organized. Most of the men here were married ones too, including Davos. This would have been a perfect event before I ment Leonna. Now, I was pretty sure I would be castrated by either Leonna or Rhaena if they found out about this event. As long as I don't do anything stupid I should be fine. I guess what happens in Stonehelm stays in Stonehelm.

**The next day**

The partying and celebrations continued into the next day too. During the day uncle Orys called me and let me know that he was proud of me for the way I handled my first battle. The man was looking tired and I realized that he hadn't fully recovered from the injuries from yesterday. I convinced him to get checked by a maester to see if there were further complications. The maester, Ryman, told us it was the concussion added with his age taking a toll on his body and now he had a fever to go with the injuries. I wasn't sure if the long march back would do any favors to his already deteriorating condition but uncle Orys was adamant that he will be alright and that he has been in way more battles than I could imagine. Davos and I did manage to convince him not to ride and take a carriage till he was completely healthy. Ryman was going to accompany him in the carriage in case things go wrong. I wasn't taking any chances.

Two days after the battle our defending host decided to split up and started moving towards Storm's End and Blackhaven. The ones going towards Blackhaven will make sure that any Dornish stragglers that couldn't make it to Stonehelm would be dealt with. I had already received news from Lucas that the Vulture King's host had been routed. I initially had assumed that the Vulture King would have been a Dornish noble but apparently he had just been a bandit who was given support by the Dornish nobility to prod and test our reaction. After defeating him they tied him to a pole and let him be eaten by vultures. Death by vultures, a fitting end for the Vulture King.

"Gradon, take your squad and meet up with Lucas and his group at Blackhaven. After sending the trophies to Princess Martell return to Storm's End with them." I instruct Legate Gradon on what to do with the trophies I handed to him.

"You really are sending back the arms as trophies?" Davos asks me with an incredulous look after Gradon left us.

"Do you know the reason why we didn't just bring two dragons and burn the invaders?" I ask my cousin and nephews as we start our march towards Storm's End on our horses.

"Yes" replies came from Davos and Rogar.

Borys however shakes his head and replies, "No. How am I supposed to know if no one tells me? I believe there is a reason?"

I sigh. I guess uncle Orys didn't explain the plans to him.

"Yes, during the first Dornish war we had deployed three dragons but in the end we were humiliated out there. The moment the invaders hear that the Dragons were being deployed, they will hear it, they would have scattered and gone into hiding and eventually fled back to Dorne. Remember, the Dornish don't fight in the open field unless they believe they have the advantage. We probably would have killed maybe, one thousand of the forces remaining loyal to the bandit. The situation would have looked absurd. Balckhaven burnt down by glorified bandits, we deploy dragons to kill them and fail at that. By not sending dragons we ensured that their force remained intact and also ensured that they fought against us. I did not expect them to split their forces and it was their folly. If they had remained as a single host we would have still won but not as easily as we did both here and at Nightsong." I explain the trap we set for the Dornish insurrection forces and realization dawns on his face.

"You let them march upon our lands just because you wanted a decisive victory? How many lives were lost because you allowed them to march on our lands?" Borys, asks me in an outraged voice.

I guess that wasn't the realization I expected.

"Yes and none," I reply.

"What?"

Use your head, you fucking moron. I guess all training and no politicking makes Borys a muscle head.

"Do you even do anything outside of training to fight?" I ask in a mocking voice.

"Of course, I like riding too." He missed the sarcasm, I sigh internally as Rogar and Davos start laughing.

"It is called strategy my idiot nephew. Gods, you are just like Maegor on how muscle headed he used to be back when he wa a kid. The moment Blackhaven fell is when we knew that there was an insurrection. We knew that they weren't going to stop their advance and we had evacuated the small folk on their path and taking all the food they had with them. Why do you think they took so long to march from Blackhaven? They had to re-establish the supply lines as we had thwarted their plan to loot our farmlands and our smallfolk. It is also probably why they split their forces."

"Wait, you didn't know that they would split and didn't know where their next targets were. How were you able to predict it correctly?"

Even I can't predict that accurately.

Rogar responded to that, "He didn't. Grandfather just evacuated everyone around Blackhaven lands and waited for them to make a move and responded. The smallfolk in the other lands were alerted to a possible invading force and were asked to be ready to evacuate. Once they decided to split forces their targets became obvious and he just evacuated smallfolk along their path."

"So this was a giant trap set for them and they rushed into it."

Finally Borys gets it. Huzzah!

"Still doesn't explain the sword arms," Davos interjected from the side.

"We have already routed them and this message is just the finishing touch to remind the Dornish that dragons don't respond to threats gently. Their defeat and this message will cause great unrest within Dorne and that is my goal. You saw how our smallfolk revered us for saving their lives and lands. The exact opposite is going to happen in Dorne and that would be our second victory." I reply explaining the package and its implications.

**Three weeks later - 38 AC - Storm's End**

Uncle Orys' condition had been progressively getting worse and he was dying. Ryman couldn't do anything, as it was just his body falling apart in his old age. We hoped that he would be able to make it to Storm's End before his death and looked like we made it in time. I had sent out a falcon to Dragonstone and mother flew Vhagar to Storm's End bringing Leonna with her. Leonna and maester Ryman tried their best but they knew it was a lost cause.

Lord Orys Baratheon died at the age of sixty eight surrounded by his family and happy that he was finally able get his vengeance on the Dornish in the first month of 38 AC. The funeral was a grand event. Lords from all over the Stormlands came to pay their respects to their liege lord and swear loyalty to Aeros. Unlce Orys was buried alongside Lady Agrella Baratheon, who died a couple of years earlier, in the Durrandon tombs near Storm's End.

Aenys left as soon as the funeral was over as he was trying to resolve the Harrenhal situation. He had sent Lord Stokeworth, his Master of Laws, who used to be father's Hand to Harrenhal to resolve the situation with Red Harren. The situation ended up in a giant cluster fuck with Lord Stokeworth and Red Harren dead. Now the Stokeworths were angry and wanted reparations but Harrenhal was going to be given to House Harroway who had nothing to do with the conflict. Aenys fucked up by not taking the Red Harren situation seriously. I guess you win some you lose some.

Mother left with Leonna the next day. My Templars returned to Acropolis on our ships. Maegor and I decided to stay for a bit longer and explore the castle and the locale. He was going to be my ride back to Dragonstone. Borys was the one who ended up helping explore the castle and its keep, despite him only wanting to go and train. After seeing me perform with a bow he had been practicing nonstop. Rogar was busy being the Stormlands' heir and Davos was off being a playboy. We found places in the castle even he didn't know existed. Maegor and I concluded that there was nothing special about the materials used in the construction but they were being magically protected from weathering effects. The biggest problem we found trying to crack through Bran the Builder's techniques is there were no written documents about it. The First Men passed down information verbally and a lot of it got lost. They didn't have a proper writing script till after the Andal invasion. So we gained no knowledge about the magic at Storm's End however we were happy that we got to explore another one of the Builder's magnificent creations. We were nearly done with our stay in Storm's End and will be leaving to Dragonstone tomorrow. We ended the day with a feast and another party.

**Later that night**

* * *

x-x-x-x-x

* * *

_What is this I'm looking at? I'm standing in midair on some clouds and all I see is the sea till the end of the horizon in all directions. Am I in some sort of dreamscape?_

"_Greetings Worldwalker."_

_I hear a dreamy voice from behind me and turn around to see two elven looking individuals. One male and one female. The female is the most beautiful woman I have seen adding both my lives. The male one look very much like the fantasy JRPG poster boys with the perfect physique and face. They are both garbed in some sort of blue flowing clothes. I'm definitely in some dreamscape. The question is why? They called me Worldwalker. Wait what?_

"_Worldwalker? You mean like a Planeswalker?" I ask them._

_The lady laughs and replies, "A bit ambitious there aren't you?. We are just Worldwalkers. We retain our memories each time we reincarnate after our deaths."_

_Okay the same Old Soul explanation and they are Old Souls too. What the fucking fuck? Who are these two?_

"_Who are you? Do you guys know me?"_

"_We ruled this world a long time ago as powerful sorcerers and the people of this world gave us many names. The most popular one you would be familiar with would be 'Sea God' and she would be the 'Storm Goddess'." The man explains as my brain struggles to comprehend the meaning behind those words._

_HOLY FUCK. I'm standing in front of Elenei's parents and they are fucking real. Nothing makes sense anymore._

"_Wait you weren't gods? Just sorcerers?"_

"_That would be correct. Sufficiently powerful humans would look like deities to those who didn't possess any power. They chose to call us as gods based on the domains of our magical expertise," replied the lady._

_Holy shit that makes a lot of sense. Wait that means The Gardener theory might be true too._

"_Wait does that mean The Gardener was also like us?"_

"_Yes Garth, he was one of us, a lucky one too." The lady responds with a wistful smile._

_Is that regret I hear in her voice?_

"_You mentioned we retain our memories after death. I assumed that it was a one-time thing. Does it mean I will continue to reincarnate with memories?"_

"_Let me ask you this. Now that you are aware that you will reincarnate, would you willingly lose your memories when you die, no matter how long it takes for you to reincarnate, when compared to losing it without knowledge of said reincarnation?"_

_I guess that is true. Existing as a disembodied soul in the endless void with no knowledge of what is going to happen next would lead to losing your mind and eventually all your memories given enough time. If you know that you will reincarnate then I guess the soul would have something to look forward to._

"_That makes sense. By the way my name is Rhaegor or Reynold depending on which life I choose."_

"_I'm Aylanei and he is Elendar."_

_I guess I now know how Elenei name came about. It did really seem weird for such an elvish name to exist in Westeros._

"_It is nice to meet you Aylanei, Elendar. Are you two still alive? How are we having this conversation?"_

"_It is nice to meet you too. No we have passed on from this world to our next ages ago. We are mere echoes formed by our magic," Elendar explains._

_Holy fuck, how strong were these two magically for just their echo to have such sentience?_

"_Did I somehow activate your magic while at Storm's End?"_

"_Our magic has been protecting the castle over the millennia and your presence there gave it focus and enough strength to be able to communicate with you."_

_So a magical resonance between my magic and their magic protecting Storm's End. Wait what? The legend is false then?_

"_Weren't you the ones attempting to destroy Storm's End? Why do you claim to be protecting it?"_

_Both start laughing at that statement. I guess the legend is completely false. What next? They arranged for Durran and Elenei's marriage?_

"_It was our daughter's home. Why would we destroy it?"_

"_Didn't your daughter elope with Durran against your wishes?"_

"_Now Rhaegor, how would you react if your daughter wished to marry a mundane human of this world?"_

"_I wouldn't approve of it unless he proved to be worthy of her hand. Ah I see."_

_I realize what happened as soon as I said it. The entire castle breaking thing was a test for Durran and Storm's End was the one where he succeeded. That would explain the pristine castle standing for over eight millennia._

"_I'm assume you reached out to me not just for conversation purposes."_

_Their face takes a serious look and Aylanei asks, "You seek power Rhaegor. What is your purpose?"_

"_Purpose? I don't really have a purpose other than figuring out the mysteries of this world and living happily with my family." I voice my thoughts aloud involuntarily. Did they make me talk with some sort of magic?_

_Her face softens and she replies, "I'm glad you seek knowledge and happiness. You might just be the worthy successor we have been waiting for."_

_Wait what?_

"_We had originally intended Elenei to succeed us in our arts however she had neither the passion nor the interest in pursuing that goal. We were disappointed but hoped we would come across someone who shared our ideals. None of her descendants were interested either. We came across many individuals who sought out power only to rule and dominate. However, you are different. You already have the power to do that but instead you choose to pursue a path of happiness. We believe you might be the perfect candidate to be our successor."_

_Okay I'm getting a power up. Not going to say no to it._

"_So just like that I'm going to get your powers? I'm game. So how do we do this?"_

"_It is not going to be easy, you will have to first seek out and find our knowledge trove and then understand what we have left there for our potential successors."_

_This is starting to sound like a cliché fantasy treasure hunt mission or a class change mission._

"_I'm guessing you are not going to make it easy and tell me where it is?"_

_They both just smile. Well it was worth a try._

_Elendar then speaks, "You will have to make a choice. As you are aware we control different aspects of this world's magic and to obtain true mastery you will only be able to choose one."_

"_So my choice is between the sea, no water or the wind? Wait a minute did the Rhoynar also worship you?"_

_He laughs at that and replies, "Yes, my domain is water and not just the sea, it includes all water including rivers. I did make the Rhoyne flow through the desert in an attempt to help the struggling people there. However, I did have plenty of help from Garth and other humans"_

_Mother Rhoyne is actually a father and he is a fucking badass. I wonder how the Dornish will feel at this reveal._

"_Wait if I can only choose one domain who will be the other's successor?"_

_Aylanei smiles and responds, "You should already know the answer to that."_

"_Leonna?"_

_She just smiles at my guess and continues "It was both your presence at Storm's End that was able to awaken our sentience. We have already marked her like we are going to mark you." _

"_You already spoke to her?"_

"_No we didn't have the strength to do that before she left so we just gave her our blessing. If you had not stayed this long we wouldn't be able to have this conversation either."_

"_What is this blessing?"_

"_You will find the wind and sea always be in your favor. You need it to find our knowledge trove. You will have to explain the finer details to her."_

_A bit cryptic but bottom-line we got a buff that lets us access the treasure, cool._

"_One last question. Do you know if Bran the Builder leave a trove like you two did?"_

_It would be awesome if Maegor could get access to that._

_Elendar smiles and replies, "Ah, Garth's son and successor in his magic. He was still a young man when he helped Durran build this castle. Our knowledge is limited to before when the magic on this castle was cast."_

"_He would have been the perfect partner for our daughter, but fate had other plans." Aylanei responds her wistful smile was back again._

_I guess that was her regret. Wait a minute? The Builder was The Gardener's successor? That meant their domain of magic was land based. How the fuck was the wall built out of ice?_

"_Now I have another question that might help me understand your magic better. Elendar, did you use your power to build the Wall?"_

"_I'm not aware of the wall you speak of, it must have been built after this magic was cast."_

_Well, Storm's End predates the fucking Wall._

"_It is a three hundred mile long and seven hundred feet tall wall made out of ice built in the North."_

_Elendar ponders for a while and answers, "Assuming that the land was strengthened by either Garth or his son, both our powers could be combined to build such a wall."_

_Holy shit! The wall is literally the combination work of three god tier sorcerers. The white walkers just got a hell of a lot scarier. The show white walkers were just a token hive mind trope._

"_Our time here is almost over. May the fates favor you and your partner, Rhaegor."_

_Everything blacks out as Aylanei wishes me luck._

* * *

x-x-x-x-x

* * *

I wake up from that dream/vision whatever it was. I remember the details unlike last time. I'm sure Leonna is going to be thrilled at this interesting revelation. I'm fucking excited and I don't think I will be going back to sleep again for the night.

**Dragonstone 48 AC – Night before Maegor's funeral**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

"Have you gone completely insane?" I yell at my husband as he finishes explaining his crazy plan.

"It was the only way I could think of that even has a small chance of working. Aurea and I came to this as our last resort." He tries to give me a reason for the stupid plan.

"Who even gave you the idea of splitting your soul?" The very thought of such an action made me shudder.

"Ah, that would be Leonna. I think she meant it as a joke, but after careful thought I realized it could be done and if it works, it could save me in my situation."

"If it works? You are risking the integrity of your soul on a chance. Are you even hearing yourself?" I'm surrounded by madness.

"It will only be temporary. If it works, the damage to my soul will heal after you kill me."

Any other day, I would have assumed that this talk as a poor jape, but right now he is completely serious and it is unnerving. Knowing about reincarnation and voluntarily mutilating his soul is just plain madness. To top it all I have to kill him for this mad plan to work. Well not exactly kill him but the effect is similar.

"How do you plan on doing it? I don't think I'm aware of any ritual that allows you to do so."

"Ah, for that I will have to bond with Balerion," he says with his infuriating smug smile.

"How is that going to help?" I ask hoping that the answer is going to be saner than his previous ones.

"I'm going use the dragons' magic to do it. It will also help with the funeral ritual for Maegor."

"So you plan on doing it tonight? Balerion returned to Dragonmont just today. What makes you think he won't just kill you in rage when he sees you?" my voice is progressively getting louder.

He walks over and pulls me in an embrace and whispers into my ear, "Relax love, I'm taking Vhagar. I won't die before I ensure our children's and your safety. Your plan is all set for tomorrow and I won't be ruining it."

The tears won't stop flowing "I'm sorry, I'm not doubting you. The risk you are taking for our sake is just too great. I just don't know what I did to deserve you."

"You just broke my mother's arm. Did you forget?" he tries to throw a jape as he starts wiping my tears.

"You better succeed or else I'm going to burn the entire world in retribution, not just Tyrosh and Lys."

"If this madness works, it will take a while for my soul to heal after we do the ritual and Vhagar should be able to let you know when it is fully healed. In the meanwhile, I hope you all find out how to heal my body," he says as he pulls me back into his embrace.

We just stand there in each other's embrace in silence.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**_Howdy Folks! If anyone wants to help me out with beta reading chapters please send a PM or let me know in the reviews._**


	9. Act 1 - 7 Secrets and Revelations

**Storm's End - 38 AC – Two hours after the vision**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

I knock on Maegor's bed chamber door. I wait a minute and knock on it again. After about thirty seconds the door opens and Maegor pokes his sleepy head out and asks me grumpily,

"What the fuck do you want? It is still in the middle of the night."

"I have something interesting I need to tell you, open the door."

I attempt to push open the door. Maegor face panics a bit and he stops me, I sense something is wrong. I expand my senses into his room and sense two women on his bed.

Well, looks like he is having fun in a different sort of way.

"Can't this wait till tomorrow?" he understood that I sensed the women, must have shown on my face.

"Sure, you continue whatever it is you are doing. Just a warning, we probably are not going to leave tomorrow." I reply with a smirk and start walking towards my bedchamber.

I hear him grumble something inaudible and then close the door. Well I didn't know that Maegor was on the philandering side. The question is does Ceryse know or not? Anyways not my problem.

I probably should get sleep if we are going to explore the castle for clues tomorrow.

* * *

**The next morning**

Maegor joined me for breakfast with Borys and we just finished.

"I plan on extending our stay for one more week." I announce to both of them.

"More exploration of the castle?" Borys asks with a hopeful look.

Apparently after finding the secret passageways he seems to have taken an additional interest in the castle exploration idea.

"Yes, but it will be just Maegor and I doing it. Don't pout nephew. We are just going to retrace our steps and make sure we didn't miss anything in the places we already explored."

"Fine, that would be better as I need to get back to the yard and resume my training," He adds with a smirk.

"Good you should not skip on training. Only then, maybe after a couple of lifetimes you can actually defeat me, my dear Borys." I reply as Maegor starts chuckling from the other side.

Borys harrumphs and leaves us alone in the room.

"Let's go back to my bed chambers before we start discussing about yesterday." I beckon to Maegor and start walking out of the room.

Once we reach the room I seal it and sit down on a chair as Maegor also does the same. We remain silent for a few moments.

"What was so fucking important that couldn't wait till morning and you had to wake me up in the middle of the night?" Maegor starts the conversation.

"I had a vision."

"Another of your dragon dreams?"

"No, not this time. I'm trying to tell it to you in a way without making me look like an idiot."

He rolls his eyes and waits.

"Alright, you know the story behind the construction of this castle right? I met the Sea God and the Storm Goddess in my vision"

I proceed to explain the details of the vision minus the Old Soul part.

"Let me get this straight. They decided that Leonna and you are their successors and the Builder's or the Gardener's trove must be hidden in a similar manner?" He asks me with an incredulous face.

"Correct, so the plan is to go back and see if we can find any clues that would point us in the direction they hid their legacies." I explain my plans for the day. "Also I'm certain that the Builder's trove will be at the Wall or Winterfell."

"A treasure hunt huh? Aenys is probably going to be pissed that I'm delaying for another week but he will survive." He pauses for a minute and then continues with a probing question, "You didn't ask me anything about last night?"

"You are my brother, as long as you are true to yourself and don't endanger our family I don't really care."

* * *

**Two months later – Tower of the Hand, King's Landing **

We spent the rest of the week trying to get any clues or information regarding the troves. We couldn't find any information regarding Elendar and Aylanei. However, I found several inscriptions that were carved into the walls of Storm's End by Elenei. It varied from short poems to songs and ballads expressing her gratitude to her parents. Maegor, was not able to see these inscriptions. He just saw plain stone. This proved to us that the vision was real and not something that I just dreamt of. We then started making plans for the next royal progress to Winterfell as we were sure we could find the Builder's trove there. I just hoped it wasn't locked behind a buff like the one I got from my patrons.

As a punishment for extending Maegor's stay at Storm's End, Aenys wanted me to go to King's Landing and help him out with the admin stuff for a month before I was allowed to go goof off on my own. The stay however extended for another month as I had to weed through layers of corruption and plain stupidity that existed in the royal court. I guess Aenys knew what he was doing when he asked me to sort it out. By the end of it I was half tempted to bring in a squadron of Templars and kill all these imbeciles. The Lords who were profiteering off the corruption and incompetence were not happy when they were exposed. However, some hid their tracks way better than expected like the sniveling cunt standing in front of me.

"Lord Darklyn, please read these." Maegor passed the parchments I had given him earlier.

Someone had been bribing the harbormaster in King's Landing to send certain ships towards Duskendale even when there was low traffic in the harbor. This arrangement had been in effect since my father's days as King. That alone would have been a non-issue, as both cities are taxed directly by the Crown. However, the Darklyns had recently petitioned for more tax autonomy in the city of Duskendale and that is a big no especially when they were funneling the more expensive cargo to their city.

"Your Grace, this is an attempt to slander the reputation of my House. I would never condone such an action." replied the Lord after reading through the parchments.

I just rolled my eyes from the side, as I could sense his smugness. Maegor noticed my signal. We didn't have proof of his direct involvement in the affair. If he did do it, his tracks were perfectly covered. Hell, I wouldn't have even found out about the arrangement if I didn't have to deal with the harbormaster's corruption on another matter.

"I believe you Lord Darklyn but I find an interesting option open to us now. The cargo routed towards Duskendale now will continue being routed there. To ensure the safety of such expensive cargo I would recommend additional forces deployed in the harbor of Duskendale. I would also suggest you to increase the City Watch numbers."

We were giving him the option to increase his military strength. I hope he takes the bait.

"Your Grace, that is indeed a wise suggestion. Increasing the City Watch strength would increase the safety of such cargo. However, it will be an expensive proposition and the additional members will need to be paid."

I think he took the bait.

"Lord Draklyn, I believe that the revenue Duskendale would make from the additional trade, such an arrangement would bring, should compensate for it. Don't you agree?"

"I can see it happen, but it is not a certainty." He answered with a bit of skepticism.

"That is true. To help you in this transition process I would like to offer some of our own retainers to serve for the City Watch. They will be paid by the Crown to reduce strain on your finances till you see an increase in the revenue."

They will be Templars and will be paid by the Order.

"That is a generous offer, Your Grace. I will gladly accept it." He was a bit confused but overall happy as he left the room.

Huzzah! He took the bait. Now I have an entry point into the Crownlands for my Templar operations. The development of King's Landing as a city had reduced the traffic and trade going towards Duskendale. The surplus traffic from King's Landing were always directed towards Duskendale. However, with certain backroom deals the Darklyns had ensured that certain shipments would go to Duskendale rather than King's Landing. With the rapid development of Dragonsurf in the last decade Duskendale's trade became more niche focused on luxury goods.

The city was also starting to attract the wrong sort of crowds. Establishing a Templar foothold there would reduce that and also provide me with a steady stream of sacrifices for the enhancement ritual.

"I'm glad I didn't just waste the two months here fixing up this City. Now I have a legitimate Templar base in the Crownlands." I radiate my smugness to Maegor.

He just rolls his eyes and responds, "The next evaluation is nearly two years away you idiot. Till then don't do anything stupid to earn mother's wrath."

"Yes, yes, I'm aware. So are you going to give me a ride to Dragonstone or should I just take a ship?"

"I will. It has been a few months since I met the children."

With his marriage being childless, he had taken to treating Aenys' and my children as his own. Leo and Arty spend more time with him than me. I absolutely not jealous at all.

I sigh and respond, "It has been four months for me. Arty will set Simba on me if I don't get her more gifts."

He laughs and replies, "I used to think Rhaena was a nightmare to deal with, till your first twins came along."

"I think it comes with the whole dragon blooded aspect. They have too much energy. I certainly hope we weren't such nightmares to mother."

* * *

**Later that day – Dragonstone Castle**

Balerion landed on the walls of Dragonstone and we climbed down to our walk towards the main keep. As soon as I entered the great hall I was tackled by two red blurs.

"Ooof. Damn, you two are getting strong. It is only a matter of time before your tackles start breaking my bones." I jokingly play with them and pull them up on each of my arm.

I see another black blur attempt a tackle on me. I side step to see Simba crash into Maegor and the three of us start laughing at their expense. I let the kids down and see Arty blocking my path.

"Papa, gimme." Arty demands her gift.

I beckoned a servant who was carrying my stuff and pick two small packages from it and give it to Arty and Leo.

"Here are your gifts. Go ahead open them." I inform them.

Arty's gift was a wood carved stag helm and Leo's was a wooden Warhammer with the Baratheron sigil carved on the sides.

They both were squealing with joy when Leonna walked in with an angry face. Oh boy, I need to start explaining fast why one week later became ten weeks.

"Leo, Arty get back to your chambers. It is time for you to sleep." She orders the kids and then points at me saying, "You follow me."

I hug and kiss the kids good night and follow Leonna who was walking towards, Rhaena's tower? Looks like I'm going to get scolded by both my wives. We walk into a Rhaena's study and I see Rhaena looking nervous and worried. On seeing me she runs towards me, hugs me and starts sobbing. What the fuck? Ok something happened in these ten weeks and I have no idea what was going on.

"Would someone mind explaining what the fuck is going on?" I ask them both as I stroke Rhaena's hair.

"You should see it yourself." I hear mother's voice from behind me and see her guiding Aurea and another toddler into the room. Is that Rhea?

"Is that Rhea? Did you dye her hair black?" I ask as I scoop her into my arms.

"Papa," she hugs me and starts playing with my hair.

I notice Aurea left out. So I let go of Rhaena and pull her up on my other arm.

"That is not a dye. Two weeks back her hair changed colors. Rhaena started freaking out since then." Leonna smirks at me as my twin girls start using my hair for their tug of war game.

Ok I'm lost. Changing hair colors magically reminds me of Mystique from X-men or Tonks from Harry Potter. Do Targs have such an ability and even so, it manifesting before even unlocking the bloodline?

"Has she been able to turn it back?" I ask them and Leonna shakes her head.

Well, I activate my senses, focus on Rhea and send a tiny pulse of my energy through her hair and it immediately turns back to silver. Huzzah! My guess was correct. Oh god, I just magically experimented on my one and half year old child based on a guess. Tempting fate really hard there Rhaegor.

"What did you do?" came the exclamation from mother, Leonna and Rhaena at the same time.

I need to stop the mass panic attack. I chuckle and reply, "Calm down, I just sent a pulse through her hair to see if it was related to our magic and looks like it was. Somehow little Rhea here has managed to access her magic involuntarily."

"I have never heard of such a possibility. How did you know of such a thing is even possible?" Mother is still in freak out mode.

"Calm down I'll explain. You mentioned to me years back, when parents with activated bloodlines have children, the children have their bloodline positives enhanced and their negatives reduced correct?"

"Yes." Good, she is starting to connect the dots.

"We assumed that it was just an overall increase in our abilities. We might have overlooked something. You remember how I was able to able to use my extraordinary sensory perception even before I unlocked my bloodline?" She nods her head and I continue, "I believe it was a mutation in our bloodline that allowed me to do it even before my bloodline was unlocked. After unlocking and activating my bloodline that ability only got ridiculously stronger.

Now I believe little Rhea has a similar mutation ability. I believe she has the ability to shapeshift and change her appearance. Right now it is only her hair color but I believe it will get stronger with each stage of our bloodline."

Everyone in the room is stumped at this revelation. The mass panic crisis is averted.

"What made you jump to that conclusion? Did you read about it anywhere in your travels?" asked Leonna. She appears to be genuinely curious. I don't really have concrete proof for my theory.

"I saw another example of a certain girl walking into a funeral pyre and walking out unharmed," and realization dawns on her face.

"Daenerys!" She exclaimed out loud and then immediately closes her mouth with her hands.

Fucking Idiot.

Mother looks at me with exasperation and Rhaena looks at us confused asking, "Who is Daenerys?"

I sigh and answer, "I guess you are the only one here who doesn't know about my dragon dreams."

I proceed to explain the Targ side of the show plotline.

"Do you know why we would lose our dragons?" Rhaena asks me.

"No, just that we lose our dragons and the eggs go dormant till Daenerys wakes them up."

"I'm going to take the little ladies to their bed while you three continue your discussion." Mother announces as she picks up Aurea and Rhea from me and walks out.

After she leaves Rhaena seals the room again and asks me, "So why did it take you nine weeks extra to get back?"

"It was because of this." I point to a package I had previously placed on the floor.

"What is it?" Leonna asks as she opens the package.

The package had a stone tablet carved by Elenei that Maegor couldn't see but I could.

"I had another vision while I was in Storm's End." I proceed to explain what happened since the start of the vision minus the Old Soul explanation.

"This not fair I want something too." Rhaena started pouting.

I laugh and pull her into my embrace and tell her, "I mean after we find and learn it there is nothing stopping us from passing it on to you."

"That is true. I wonder what I should choose. If Maegor finds the Builder's trove that would give me three options." Rhaena ponders aloud.

"Rhaena dear, I don't think there is much to discuss here about this tonight. I think you should get back to your boys to make sure they are fine." Leonna pulls Rhaena out of her air castle.

Rhea responds in panic, "Gods, you are correct. I have not checked on them for over four hours. I'm a bad mother."

"Calm down, they are not going anywhere and they are at the age where they just eat and sleep and shit." I try to calm her from her agitated state.

"Yes, you are correct. I should still go to them." Rhea responds and proceeds to leave the room.

We also start walking towards my bed chambers and I ask Leonna, "Do you just enjoy making her panic?"

Leonna laughs and replies, "It's cute, watching her be a new mother. I have all my Paladins on babysitting duty else she wouldn't stop worrying."

"So what is the real reason you sent her away?" I ask her with a smirk as we enter my bed chamber and I seal it.

"Oh please you know the answer. You have four months of debt to pay me, Your Grace" she gives me a flirtatious smile.

"Of course my Lady, the Targaryens also pay their debts." I pull her in my embrace and kiss her. Tonight is going to be a long and fun night.

* * *

**Time Skip**

**Dragonstone Castle 39 AC**

Leonna and I tried to find as much clues about the knowledge troves as possible, hitting dead ends everywhere. We found enough to come to a conclusion that it was not on Westeros and we strongly suspected that it might be hidden somewhere in the Narrow Sea close to Westeros.

Aenys had another daughter, Vaella. So he had Rhaena his eldest and my wife, Aegon his heir, Viserys his spare, Jaehaerys, Alysanne and Vaella. Same as me three boys and three girls. Alyssa returned to Dragonstone during the late months of her pregnancy. She had some difficulties during labor but Leonna and her Paladins were able to help make sure both the mother and daughter were completely safe and healthy. It was his first child after Aenys had ascended the throne. The entire island of Dragonstone was celebrating her birth for a couple of weeks. He also organized a royal progress to the Dornish Marches, Riverlands, Iron Islands and the Vale. These were the regions where the unrest had occurred during his first year of reign. I managed to convince him that for his next progress he should visit Winterfell and the Wall.

Something important had come up and I was summoned to Dragonstone by Aenys. When the hell did he come to Dragonstone from King's Landing. I made a quick horse ride from Acropolis and noticed Balerion flying around too, Maegor is also here.

I made my way up to the castle solar and saw mother, Aenys and Ceryse sitting and discussing something. Maegor wasn't around. I give both Aenys and Ceryse a hug and sat down in one of the chairs.

"What was so important that couldn't be discussed over a falcon and made you come personally to Dragonstone?" I asked Aenys.

"I have no fucking clue. It was Maegor that announced the need for such a summons and he refused to tell me more till we all gathered together." Aenys replied. Mother and Ceryse also looked bewildered.

"Where is the idiot?" I asked everyone in the room.

"He should be here soon," Ceryse replied.

We only had to wait for a couple of minutes and the man of the hour decided to grace us with his presence. He proceeded to hug both mother and me and then sat down in another chair.

"So brother, what is the news so important that required emergency summons? And you are fucking late." I asked Maegor.

He laughed and replied, "It was your brats that were holding me up." His face then turned serious and then he continued, "I wanted you four to be together when I revealed this news."

Something had happened.

"I have a child." He announced.

I turned around to look at Ceryse who was looking equally bewildered. What the fuck did you do Maegor?

"Who is the mother?" Aenys asked the obvious question in everyone's mind.

"Lady Sharra Arryn."

If I had been drinking something it would have been a glorious spittake.

"Rodrick Arryn is your son?" I asked in disbelief.

"Don't be an idiot Rhaegor. It obviously is not the babe-" Aenys trailed off as he managed to connect the dots and after a moment let out a loud, "Seriously?" towards Maegor.

To which Maegor nodded and I burst out laughing. This is so fucking hilarious. The heir to House Arryn is half Targaryen one fourth Stark and one fourth Arryn and the Arryns have no fucking clue?

"This is not a laughing matter. How the hells did it even happen and how did you even find about it?" Aenys went into his panic mode as his voice rose.

I didn't blame him. The succession issue at Vale had only been resolved recently by Maegor himself and to think he left a souvenir behind in honor of his arbitration is just another powder keg waiting to explode if the scandal ever broke out.

"It happened when I was at the Eyrie resolving Jonos' rebellion. I found out about it during my recent trip to Gulltown." Maegor replied.

"The Arryns were at Gulltown?" asked Aenys and Maegor nodded.

"From the child's features?" I asked Maegor

He nodded with a reply, "The boy looked just like your twins, pale hair but grey Stark eyes."

Thank gods the Arryns were blonde and didn't have darker hair. The scandal would have already happened otherwise. I look around to see Ceryse having a shocked expression and mother having an amused expression. Looks like mother saw my point of view.

"Right, I'm going to ask the most obvious question here. Ceryse, were you aware of his philandering ways?" I ask Ceryse as Aenys looks at me incredulously and blinked and mother just snorts.

So Aenys had no idea and mother knew.

She looks at me with a raised eyebrow and responded, "Yes, I allowed it as long as he kept it a secret and didn't bring any shame to me."

"What?" Aenys shouted out and then turned to ask me, "Did you know?"

"I found out about it during our stay in Storm's End." I replied and saw Ceryse shoot a glare at Maegor and he looked evasively everywhere else.

"We cannot lay claims on the boy as it would lead to a diplomatic disaster. Does Lord Arryn believe the boy to be his son?" Mother spoke out for the first time in this conversation.

Maegor nodded and replied, "Only Sharra is aware of his true identity."

Wait a minute.

"Brother did you just find out about your child or did you also attempt to leave another souvenir behind with Lady Arryn?" I asked Maegor.

He just glared at me for a while and then answered, "Does it matter?"

"You really fucked her again? This is fucking hilarious." I started laughing at this revelation as Aenys facedesks.

"Hope that if Lady Arryn has another child it resembles your son. If she had another child and the child had different features it might lead to suspicion on your son," replied mother as Aenys looked at her incredulously.

"You approve of this nonsense?" Aenys asked mother in outrage.

"What else can we do for this situation? Silence is the best option and don't send him to the Vale anymore." Mother responded to Aenys accusation.

"I agree. If Lord Arryn believes the child to be his son, there would be no issues with his upbringing other than being raised in the Faith." I added my view on this matter.

Aenys looked contemplative and then nodded his head with a sigh. Awesome, the issue appeared to be resolved.

"I want to marry again." and Maegor dropprd another bombshell.

"What?" Both Aenys and Ceryse responded to him, as mother looked at Maegor with a raised eyebrow.

"Now that I know that I'm capable of fathering a child I want a legal heir," came Maegor's reply.

Oh boy. He must have assumed he was sterile since he didn't father any bastards till date, even with his philandering. No wonder he didn't push for a second marriage before this. The room has pin drop silence for a couple of minutes.

"The Faith would not support polygamy so it will have to be a smaller wedding similar to Rhaegor's." Ceryse was the one who responded to Maegor's demand and she agreed?

"You would go along with this?" Aenys had a mind blown expression while he asked Ceryse.

Today has been a day of outrageous surprises indeed.

"Your Grace, it is my duty as his wife to bear my husband an heir and I failed. My failure has been made clear with the recent revelation. I will not stand in the way of my husband seeking a legal heir. I just hope that I would not be set aside for my failure."

I could feel the sadness and dejection in her voice. Maegor walked to her and pulled her to in his embrace.

"I would never set you aside. You are my first wife and you will continue to hold that position as long as either one of us is alive." Maegor consoled Ceryse and continued, "Thank you for allowing my selfishness."

"The Faith will go on the offensive. They have already denounced Rhaegor's marriage and a second marriage will cause more issues. Lords are already taking behind our backs and this would only worsen the situation." Aenys responded with a sigh.

"I have an idea. You could remain neutral on the matter neither condoning nor condemning his marriage. That way that Lords will have no reason to blame you and the blame will be on Maegor alone. He has enough of a thick skin to ignore what the sniveling Lords say about him. Lord Hightower would be an issue though. He is already extremely pissed off that I married Rhaena and not Leonna." I offered my suggestion.

"I will have to put up a token resistance to his second marriage as it would be expected of me." Ceryse pondered loudly.

"I will have to dismiss him as my Hand. I cannot allow him to serve that office after this, as it would appear that I was condoning his behavior." Aenys complained from the side.

"Well, Ceryse, you could return to Oldtown for a while after the wedding to make it look like you are condemning his act of infidelity and try to smooth over matters with the Hightowers. Maybe even make a public declaration or two?" I asked Ceryse.

She pondered for a few moments and then replied, "As long as my father is satisfied I will be content. I do not expect my brother to come to terms with it. He still believes that I betrayed House Hightower because I was not willing to be a spy for him."

"Wait what?" Aenys exclaimed in shock.

This is indeed a day of shocking revelation. It seems the Hightowers wanted to use Ceryse for insider information on our family. Thankfully she had remained loyal to House Targaryen, otherwise I shudder to think what mother would have done with her.

"Your Grace, during the early days following my marriage my brother Martyn attempted to convince me that providing information about House Targaryen activities would benefit House Hightower as he could secure better position in the court. He did not expect me to ignore his demands. I wasn't going to risk my marriage for his ambitions. It was not until later that I found out that I made the best decision of my life. I would have been easily exposed with the powers at your disposal and my life would have been ruined." Ceryse explains the details behind her previous statement.

This is exactly the reason I fucking hate the Lords of this fucking realm. All they care about is their power and prestige. Every one of them could have easily done what I did with the Templars, in a decade, over the many centuries their House ruled over their lands but instead they decide to be squabbling idiots and fucking narrow minded cunts.

She then looked towards me and said with a smirk, "He hates you more because you stole the love of his life, Leonna, from him."

Huh? That was another surprising revelation. It also explained the tremendous hate boner he seemed to radiate towards me, the last couple of times we met.

"I still have to remove him from the office of the Hand." Aenys was pouting.

"Stop pouting brother. He can come back to Dragonstone and take over the Templar affairs here. The next stage of the Order's development would be in the Crownlands and it would be perfect for me to be there as your Hand." I explained my idea to him.

"That is indeed a good plan. So Maegor have given any thought on who you want to marry?" he asked Maegor

"Uh, no?"

Facepalm moment for me. I assumed he had someone in mind.

He continued, "If given the option it would be Lady Arryn, but that is not possible."

Well it is possible under certain conditions.

"We could arrange for Lord Arryn to meet with an unexpected accident, maybe during hunting?" I offered my suggestion.

Aenys looks at me angrily for my suggestion. I shrug and shut up. My idea was valid, fuck you Aenys.

"If Ceryse is going to maintain her position as your first wife then the Lady would have to be from a house with lower standing." Mother chiped in with her thoughts.

That made sense. That took out Lady Arryn as an option. With House Hightower being a great house that still didn't reduce the options by much.

"What about the Harroways of Harrenhal? They have a Lady of age, I think her name was Alys." Aenys suggested.

"I know of her. She is almost like Leonna, fierce and intelligent. I have spoken to her multiple times during her visits to the Red Keep." Ceryse replied to Aenys' suggestion.

Maegor looked a bit stumped. I would have been to in his position. The two people most likely to oppose his second marriage were discussing potential brides. Mother was looking at the discussion with amusement. I guess she approved of the Harroway girl.

"I think we have all the important details taken care of. We should approach House Harroway before we make any further plans." Mother made the announcement and we had a new wedding to prepare for.

* * *

**A few months later – Weirwood Grove, Driftmark**

Lord Harroway was delighted that his daughter could marry Maegor. The Lady didn't seem to have any reservation of being a second wife either. The reaction from the Faith and other pious Lords of the realm were as expected. Lord Martyn Hightower was the most annoying of them all even going as far to name Lady Alys as the 'Whore of Maegor'. None of us cared and that only further served to infuriate him. The success behind the Vulture Hunt had made most of the Reach Lords in the Dornish Marches completely loyal to House Targaryen. The Tyrells wanted to limit Hightower influence and therefore Martyn's diatribe wasn't being well received even among his fellow Reach Lords. The High Septon however was firmly on his side and was attempting to convince the other Lords to condemn House Targaryen's practices of incest and polygamy.

Riverlords and the Westerlords were among the ones who stood behind Hightower and the High Septon in condemning us. The Vale Lords didn't really care about the Faith politics and Hightower's influence was nonexistent there. They also respected Maegor a lot for the way he ended their mini rebellion.

Naturally the wedding ended up happening similar to mine in my weirwood grove with the addition of Jaehaerys' dragon Vermithor added to the dragon lineup.

Maegor and Alys enter the temporary altar built for the ceremony. Mother is the one officiating the wedding this time. They say their vows and Maegor kisses the bride. Another happy Westerosi wedding! Driftmark is definitely the only place in Westeros that is perfectly safe for weddings.

* * *

**Asshai - Council Tower – 39 AC**

**Meshorlah Drennanar**

This was an event that I wished wouldn't have had to happen in my lifetime. It typically meant we, The Shadow Council, had failed in our primary directive. A meeting of the full Shadow Council was last held in the early years of The Century of Blood after the Doom of Valyria. All the seven seats of the council are in attendance today due to the warning we all received around eighteen months back. Active magic in the world was supposed to be waning, instead something happened that caused it to start proliferating again. The source and the cause of the proliferation was also a complete unknown. Our sorcerers estimated that the event happened two years ago. The council had maintained strict control over the known magic practitioners of the world ever since the fall of Valyria. Once they were made aware of the hidden danger that existed in this world they always fell in line but something or someone had managed to slip through our control.

"Councilors, let us being our official proceedings," stated Lord Shadow, the immortal leader of our Council and representing the Shadowlands, as he started the meeting and continued "Someone had managed to access a hidden nexus of magic that we were completely unaware of. If they completely unveil this nexus it could give rise to the next Valyria or worse."

"Right, whose brilliant idea was it to teach dragon blooded shepherds how to tame dragons. Last time we messed with a magical nexus Valyria happened." Stated Lord Martyn Hightower, representing Westeros, in retort to Lord Shadow.

"My predecessors, oh don't look too surprised, even though I'm centuries old I'm still mortal and will pass my seat to my successor eventually," explained Lord Shadow. I had just assumed he was an immortal and judging by most of the surprised looks around the table the other Councilors did so too.

"When the Ghiscari stumbled upon the blood magic nexus they became an unstoppable force. With the resources in their hand they were spiraling out of control. Our predecessors feared the rise of another Empire of Dawn. They sought to counter the Ghiscari by using the Valyrians and dragons. The plan was simple they fight each other and end up killing themselves. However, they were unaware of the Valyrian draconic blood lineage. Well, we all know how it ended. Instead of stopping the Ghiscari they absorbed their practices and did make the entire situation spiral out of control. We had to expose ourselves to the Valyrians and do everything in our power just to keep them contained in their peninsula." Lord Shadow explained the details behind the rise of the Valyrian Freehold.

"Did we cause the Doom of Valyria?" I asked Lord Shadow.

He replied with a chuckle, "I wish we did, but no. Their sorcerers were too strong for us to operate anywhere close to the Freehold. They brought it upon themselves. I tried to obtain as much information behind the cause of the Doom but it still remains a mystery to me. My best guess would be, they tried to harness the power from the fourteen flames and they weren't able to control the outburst."

"We don't even know what nexus the Valyrians accessed. They had access to more than blood magic and I don't think even they were aware of that fact. Could it have been someone trying to reach that nexus?" Lord Lo Ten of Yi Ti asked Lord Shadow.

"With Valyria still a smoldering ruin we can be sure that it wasn't their nexus that was accessed. We are also certain no ship had attempted to reach Valyria for more than two years." Lord Shadow replied to Lord Ten.

"Lady Drennanar, any luck from the cults of the Free Cities?" Lady Delehrys Valgaris of Volantis asked me.

"Getting information out of them is like pulling your hair out one by one. However, most of them are completely unaware of the events. The Faceless Men, were aware of the proliferation but they have no idea who was behind it." I responded with the details of my work ever since I was made aware of the proliferation.

"What about the remaining Valyrians in Westeros?" asked Lord Gragnar mo Dhagahl, representing Ghiscar, to Lord Hightower.

"The King is an idealist, wants to help everyone. His brothers are my biggest headache. The islands of Blackwater Bay are impregnable. No one outside of the family knows what really goes on in there. We planted my sister within them thinking she would be a source of information from within the family. She betrayed us and completely switched to their side." Lord Hightower replied to Lord Dhagahl.

Having been in contact with Lord Hightower over the years I was aware of his hostile nature towards the Targaryens.

"Betrayed by your own blood, that is indeed painful." Lord Dhagahl of Ghis attempted to taunt/console Lord Hightower.

"Even though they were among the lowest, they still are a Dragon Lord bloodline. We might have underestimated them when we allowed them to unite the land under one banner." Lord Hightower replied with a tinge of sulk in his voice.

"We failed in our attempts to eliminate them after the Doom. It was either Westeros or the Free Cities and the Century of Blood had weakened the Free Cities enough for us to regain control there. We couldn't afford to allow our control over the Free Cities to drop and allow another Valyria to rise again. Westeros was the better option we had. It is only a matter of time before they start fighting among themselves in typical Westerosi tradition and hopefully end up killing themselves." Lord Shadow explained the reasoning behind the Council's support for the Conquest of Westeros.

"One thing I'm sure about is the nexus was not accessed in Westeros. My maesters would have found out immediately as they would have been the first ones any Westerosi would report to." Lord Hightower proclaimed with pride.

"Even the Valyrians?" Lord Dhagahl of Ghis asked him.

"They report to the Grand Maester and from his accounts the King and his brothers are more inclined to the art of building and not dabbling in sorcery. Maegor likes to build castles and his twin appears to be an inventor. Our worry that Queen Visenya might have been a sorcerer turned out to be just paranoia in the end." Lord Hightower explains the details of his network.

The hatred at his mention of Maegor and Maegor's twin was clear to everyone in the room. Oh grow up Hightower, women are not things you own.

"Have the maesters started reporting directly to the Hightowers?" Lord Shadow asked Lord Hightower.

"No, they just report to the Conclave and we have our spies there."

"They are growing stronger and it is only a matter of time before they finish consolidating their power and start to expand again. You mentioned that their home was impregnable how do you know of their activities while they are there?" Lady Mabhal Zhaada, the Summer Islander of Qarth, asked Lord Hightower.

Her seat has always been a source of confusion to me. It alternates between a Summer Islander and a Qartheen every generation. Her choice to stay in Qarth made it more vexing to us as apparently she found Summer Isles boring. Still, Lord Shadow approves of her and that is the final.

"I can answer that, they have been experimenting with Braavosi shipwrights to build new ship types that they have been using to trade in the narrow sea. Those who joined them were asked to take a blood oath to not reveal the new designs. I was initially worried that something more sinister might be going on there but after months of observing them we only saw them fight pirates and trade with the ships they built. Prince Rhaegor appears to be swimming in coin he made from his ventures. The ships were based off Summer Islands' swan ships and his forces prefer using bows. He would be a perfect fit in the Summer Isles Lady Zhaada." I explain the activities of Prince Rhaegor that I have managed to observe through my spies in Dragonsurf.

"So we have an Idealist, the second coming of the Builder and a merchant Prince. They appear to be polar opposites of their parents. As long as the dragon problem is resolved they might even make good rulers for Westeros." Lord Dhagahl of Ghis commented about the three Targaryen Princes.

"I never thought I would see the day a Ghiscari would endorse Valyrians." Lord Ten of Yi Ti remarked towards Lord Dhagahl.

"I mentioned after we get rid of their dragons. Till then they remain a threat. As long as the dragons are present active magic will never be completely subdued. The Valyrians were better rulers than Old Ghiscari. There is no shame in accepting the truth." Lord Dhagahl of Ghis explained his thought process.

"The best case for us would be if someone stumbled upon a nexus and left it untouched after shitting their breeches." Lady Valgaris of Volantis voiced her thoughts.

Lord Hightower snorted loudly to that statement.

"We can't just assume that. You know what would happen if the world's magic resurfaces completely?" Lord Ten of Yi Ti asked Lady Valgaris.

"Yes, yes, the long night returns and humanity will be doomed. The tale has been passed down for eight thousand years. However, none of us have any idea on what actually is going on here. I don't see a solution being offered by anyone else." Lady Valgaris of Volantis explains nonchalantly.

"Lord Shadow, your predecessors must have fought in the previous Long Night for the sake of humanity. We know the Empire of Dawn was the reason for the Long Night to start but do you know what exactly caused the event to trigger?" I asked Lord Shadow.

Lord Shadow sighs and starts to explain, "I might as well give you the full truth. If the situation is as dire as I believe it to be, we need to be prepared. You both are partially correct Lady Drennanar, Lady Valgaris. According to the records of the first Lord Shadow, who fought alongside the Azor Ahai, the Long Night is an event that happens every time humanity in our world reaches a level of advancement. He referred to our world as a 'Garden World'. Our world is protected by a shield that keeps the invaders out and keeps us safely inside. The shield has a mind of its own. If it feels like humanity has advanced to the point where we are ready to face otherworldly challenges the Long Night will begin."

He paused for a few moments to observe the shock on our faces and continued.

"The Long Night has happened many times over the millennia. The last one was triggered by the Empire of Dawn when the Bloodstone Emperor inadvertently cast a ritual to make the world's magic wax enough to open the barrier of the world. The world was not prepared for the invasion of the 'Others'. Humanity suffered significant losses and we barely manage to avoid defeat and push back the invaders. Lord Shadow saw his dear friend, the Azor Ahai, sacrifice his life to drive back the invaders and formed the Shadow Council to prevent such an event from ever happening again." Lord Shadow explained how and why the Council was formed.

The room was in silence letting the gravity of the situation settle in.

"So that is why Valyria decided to stop expanding the influence of the Freehold. Even they feared what would happen in case something went wrong accidentally." Lord Ten of Yi Ti remarked as his face turned pensive.

"So finding the nexus is paramount. It would be great if we knew something, anything about it. Without knowledge we are just wandering blindly in the dark." Lord Hightower responded with a sigh.

"What if we mobilize the Red Cult in search of this nexus?" Lady Valgaris of Volantis offered.

"How is that going to help us?" I asked her.

"We spread rumors that one of the holy relics of Azhor Ahai has been discovered and disturbed to set the cultists on a wild chase. They will either help us in finding the nexus or driving away the founders from the nexus with the chaos they create." She explained her suggestion in detail.

"It will have to be limited to Essos and the free cities. In Westeros their presence would be detrimental as they would increase support for the Targaryens." Lord Hightower offered his opinion.

"Are you doing anything to limit the influence of the Valyrians in Westeros?" Lady Zhaada of Summer Isles asked Lord Hightower.

"The Faith will be instrumental in doing that. The realm is set to explode and even if they won the support of the smallfolk during the rebellions and insurrection, the Lords are fuming at their lost influence. I already have plans to use those Lords to rile up the Faith against them. That should see their influence go down. Since we have established that the nexus is not in Westeros, I can stick to my original plans of limiting the Targaryen influence and power." Lord Hightower explains his plans of using the Faith on the Targaryens.

"I don't like the fact that we are depending on the fanatics and cultists here, but as we don't have another option, I accept the proposal too." Lord Dhagahl of Ghis agreed to Lord Hightower's demands.

"If the Councilors are in agreement I will approve of this plan of action. I sincerely hope that it is enough. Councilors Valgaris and Hightower proceed with caution for this plan is a highly volatile one. With that I call an end to the Shadow Council meeting. May fortune favor us all." Lord Shadow announced the decision and called an end to the proceedings.

As we leave the council room I see Lady Zhaada walking a few steps ahead of me.

"Lady Zhaada you are the Summer Islander Councilor have you even been to the Isles in the last fifteen years?" I ask the Summer Islander.

She smiles at me and replies "That place is incredibly dull compared to Qarth and you need me to keep an eye on the Warlocks to prevent them from doing something stupid. The Isles have been at peace since the Doom and peace becomes boring. Maybe when I decide to retire in about a decade I will go back there."

I have a bad feeling about this entire series of events.

**x-x-x-x-x**

_**Howdy Folks! If anyone wants to help me out with beta reading chapters please send a PM or let me know in the reviews.**_


	10. Act 1 - 8 Hand of the King

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

After Maegor's second marriage was announced to the realm, the Lords who were protesting against it demanded Aenys to condemn him for the act and get Maegor to return to his lawfully wedded wife, Ceryse. Aenys fired Maegor from the office of the Hand and gave me the position. The protesting Lords were happy to see Maegor getting fired but they started protesting again as I was also a heretic in their eyes due to my marriage to Rhaena. We ignored the second wave of protests and continued with our work in governing the realm.

My position wasn't new for me as I had worked with Maegor on multiple occasions in the past and had already had experience in dealing with the shit show that is the court of King's Landing. Dealing with the Small Council was however a new experience for me. It typically involved Grand Maester Gawen parroting what the High Septon said about Maegor and me, Lord Velaryon and Lord Celtigar arguing about how to spend the treasury, Lord Massey complaining about rising crime rate in the City and surrounding regions, while asking for more men and Ser Corlys Velaryon the Kingsguard commander reporting about various intrigues and spy stuff he did.

The Kingsguard were supposed to be like the Secret Service for the King. They served as both the last and first line of defense for the King by physically protecting him and also by unravelling plots against the King through their vast spy network. Ser Corlys was basically Barristan and Varys put together in a single role and he did a damn good job at that. I wonder when the roles were separated and the Master of Whispers seat was created for the Small Council. I assume later Kingsguard didn't have the finesse to operate a spy network and were basically muscle headed warriors. I really want such an intricate network of spies for my Templar operations when they are fully operational in the realm.

* * *

**Dragon Roads for Everyone**

Westeros had vast lands but not enough population to utilize the land. Reach was the most populous kingdom. This was primarily because they were the most explored and most developed kingdom. The extensive exploration of the lands in the Reach saw significant portions of the lands converted to farmlands for various food and cash crops. The kingdom became the bread basket of Westeros and population boom occurred in the kingdom. There was more accessible space in the Reach compared to the other kingdoms. They did have the biggest area after the North but their population was estimated to be three times the size of Riverlands even though they were less than double the size of Riverlands. This was the same effect I had seen back in Dragonstone during the initial development of the Templars. Lack of exploration and safety prevented the smallfolk to venture out far from established castle towns. The land was available but reliable access to it was not. Those who were brave enough to venture out into the unknown became easy targets for wild animals, bandits and raiders. This was still just a hypothesis of mine. I wasn't completely sure if the population would boom occur or not.

The Templars would fit in the role for the exploration and bandit extermination perfectly and help make the available lands safer to access. The expansion of Templar operations into the Crownlands would be a perfect test for hypothesis. Talking about Templar operations I noticed that to expand my operations in the Crownlands I needed a good travel network in the region.

The roads connecting the various castles were dirt roads and not conducive to fast travel. The nearest castle Rosby was about seventy miles from the City and should only take three days, for a horse drawn carriage, to get there but due to the roads' condition it takes an additional day or two. So my plan was to build a road network connecting all the Crownlands' castles and the two cities together. I'm still debating about adding Maidenpool, Harrenhal and Tumbleton to the list of places I want connected, maybe later after the initial network is done. The initial plan is to connect Stokeworth, Rosby, Duskendale, Rook's Rest, Sow's Horn, Antlers and Dyre Den to King's Landing. These would be the main centers of human activity on the northern side of the Kingswood. Stonedance and Sharp Point are well connected by the sea, so I don't plan on building roads to them as of now.

My plan involved around 1500 miles of road network to be constructed and I needed to get funding for the project. The upside is, the cost of the network would be paid back by the increased trade it allows within a few years. The down side is, I have to get the initial funding and the labor for the project. This was going to be a mega project for Westerosi standards and we will be needing the Lords of the castles to be on board with the project as they will be supplying the labor. All I have to do is convince the Small Council and Aenys that the investment will be worth it in the long run.

With the help of the Master Builders and the Strategist of the Templars I was able to produce a solid plan for the project and show the Small Council that the investment would pay significant dividends after its completion. Having the interior castles towns connected with reliable roads to two port cities would see a significant spike in their trade and boost the economy significantly. Convincing Aenys was very easy. All I had to do was explain to him that the smallfolk's lives will be improved significantly by the project and he accepted. The Small Council were intrigued by the idea but were still hesitant because of the high initial costs. After days of haggling and debating I was able to convince them to fund two thirds of the total investment. This was also only on condition that the remaining funds must be raised by the Lords of the castles that were to be included on the network. I did see their point, the Lords will see significant benefits and they need to contribute financially. I invited the Lords of Houses Stokeworth, Rosby, Darklyn, Staunton, Hogg, Buckwell and Brune to dicuss the project at the Tower of the Hand

"It looks like all the invited Lords are finally here. Please take your seats and the servants will bring you any refreshments you need." I gestured towards the huge table in my solar.

They took a few minutes and finally settled down with drinks and other refreshments.

"Your Grace, you mentioned something about an undertaking that would be on par with the dragon roads of Old Valyria in your message. Based on the Lords present for this discussion I assume you are planning on constructing roads in the Crownlands." Lord Draklyn of Duskendale stated my intentions.

He was the only Lord who knew some details as his City will also be a primary hub in the network. I floated this idea with him previously and he was interested.

"You are correct Lord Darklyn. I have a dream to make the Crownlands not dependent on the Riverlands and Reach for food and make it an economic power in the realm, independent of other kingdoms." I made my grand statement.

It got them interested in the idea. The crownlands were dependent on the Reach and Riverlands for food and the Lords would take any opportunity to get away from that dependence.

"How do you plan on achieving it, Your Grace?" asked Lord Rosby.

I began to explain my plans, "My loyal Lords of the Crownlands as we all know we are one of the kingdoms with the least number of smallfolk. This is the reason we struggle to feed our lands and people during the harsh seasons and have to rely on the Reach and Riverlands for grain. We have almost as much land as the Riverlands but not enough smallfolk to work these lands."

I started to explain in detail, my hypothesis of poor connectivity and exploration as reasons why people don't work here and prefer the better explored regions of Reach and Riverlands.

"Aye, the lands are dangerous for the smallfolk once they venture out of the protection our castles offer and with bandits running rampant they wouldn't want to venture out either." Lord Buckwell agreed with my thoughts.

"My plan is to make roads that will not be destroyed by years of riding over it or that would be washed away by rain. With the roads between the major towns and cities connected and not needing the Lords to maintain, they could spend that coin on hiring more guards for exploring and expanding. The better roads will also give you better access to the ports of King's Landing and Duskendale. This will allow more trade and with more trade you get more coin to further invest in your lands and people. More people move into your lands, and more land will be farmed for grain. Eventually we will not have to rely on the Reach and Riverlands for grain." I explained my idea.

"You talk about the dragon roads of Old Valyria? You really want to build something like the dragon roads?" Lord Darklyn asked me with a surprised face.

"Yes, I have the way to rebuild the Old Valyrian dragon roads. It would require a significant amount of work and investment to be done. The dirt roads that run between the castles and the cities will have to be dug up and filled with layers of stone. The stones will then be fused with dragon fire to form dragon roads." I explained the process to him and passed copies of the more intricate details to each of the Lords.

The process was not a secret but the necessary engineering that went into before the fusing of the stones was not common knowledge. Only the maesters knew it and it was an expensive method to build roads even without the dragon fire so Lords just went with dirt and unpaved roads.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Templar Order and my policy that every member of the order should be a literate. I ran into issues with books and copies. Thus Westeros saw it first printing press developed. It was used for Templar only purposes as I was sure the maesters will be enraged if I put half of them out of a livelihood. After the failed debacle with spectacles I wasn't sure if providing the maesters with innovations would be fruitful in furthering the realm's knowledge. I guess I can use my Templars in the future to spread basic knowledge among the masses.

The Lords read through my proposal in detail and after several minutes Lord Darklyn asked me, "How do you plan on funding the coin for the road, Your Grace?"

"Two thirds of the coin will be provided by the Crown and the remaining will be split among the Lords of the castles connected to the network." I answered the question and cacophony broke out in the room.

This was expected. First they were arguing why they should pay and the Lords like Stokeworth and Rosby realized that if the further castles are connected to the network then their castles would be automatically connected. Time to add the incentives I guess.

I announced, "My Lords, those of you who are willing to fund coin for the roads will be getting a tax benefit for the next ten years. You will pay a reduced rate compared to the rate you pay now."

Another wave of cacophony erupted in the room as human greed took over. Even with the reduced rate our conservative estimates predict the tax income to double in the next five to six years. The prediction was based on the growth rate at Dragonstone. So that would include the Templar operation in the lands. With the Templars exploring lands and enforcing law, the productivity should skyrocket and frankly the roads are only a means to get faster travel times for the Order. I also get to leave my permanent mark on the land of Westeros. The dragon roads of Volantis have not seen any degradation for over several millennia. I expect my roads to perform similarly.

All the Lords were now interested in the project and I sweetened the pot, "If the Lords of the castle provide your own labor for the work they will get further tax reduction for ten years based on the number of men you provide."

That should bring all the excess hands they have in their lands to help with the project.

We had five dragons working to fuse the rocks once the foundation was laid and even then it was a slow process. The population of the Crownlands also saw a significant upward trend during its construction. The beggars and criminals holed up in the cities of King's Landing and Duskendale were also forced to join the construction work. The project started in the late months of 39 AC and was completed in the early months of 42 AC.

I eventually had to expand the road network to Tumbleton in the Reach and Maidenpool in the Riverlands. We had a lot of people move in from the Reach and Riverlands as labor during the construction as the two towns were also connected to the Crownlands.

I finally have my dragon road network in the Crownlands.

* * *

**Fourth Templar Expansion – Crownlands Entry**

By the time 40 AC came it was time for the fourth Templar performance evaluation. It was also the first evaluation where father did not review our performance. It was done by Aenys and mother instead. My move of establishing the Templars in the City Watch of Duskendale was something that was technically not allowed as per the restrictions set after the previous review, but it was a necessary overstep on my side. I needed live human sacrifices for my enhancement ritual and the criminal activity of the Blackwater Islands had reduced to the point only minor offences were being committed and the number of death row prisoners was nearly zero. Duskendale allowed me to smuggle the criminal scum in the Darklyn lands, we had a lot of those, to Templar areas to be used for the enhancement ritual. Within two years the entire combat division of ten thousand Templars were enhanced, and the support side was also getting though the process based on their rankings.

The Galleons were a success as far as the naval side was considered. The Order was already self-sufficient on the financial side with our operation in the three islands and the percentage profits we received from Lords Valaryon and Celtigar. Galleons were twice as fast as war galleys and twice as big as trade cogs for cargo size. They improved our trading capability significantly and further increased the income. I had close to two thousand men working on the Galleons used in the various trade routes in the Narrow Sea, some of the routes even went up to Yi Ti in the Jade Sea. Pirates and privateers also served as an excellent source of human sacrifices. I wanted to further improve the ships by introducing steam propulsion, but the Templar shipwrights and engineers were too busy with existing projects to focus on experimental ones. I was also having a personnel shortage as the support division was limited to half the combat division.

Acropolis was finally built into a naval fortress base that could only be taken down through naval siege. It was technically a city sized settlement but due to the reduced population and the presence of farmland within the walls it was not called as such and it didn't need a city charter from the Crown. The headquarters of the Order was moved from Dragonreach to Acropolis. I considered sending some of the ships at Acropolis to fight as sellsails for the various disputes in Essos for them to gain naval combat experience. I put that plan on hold till the fourth expansion.

The City Watch of Dragonsurf in Dragonreach was still being handled by the Templars but the City Watch now hired non-Templar knights and warriors too, as it would be really suspicious if they were asked to take magical blood oaths for just joining a City Watch. This also helped considerably with relaxing the man power that Templars had to sacrifice in maintaining law in the City.

The success of the Templar deployment during the Vulture Hunt was unprecedented. We were the only faction that participated in the war that didn't suffer a single casualty. The worst injuries amongst our ranks were caused by stray arrows killing our horses. Our deployment also created a huge shitstorm in Dorne after news about my trophy gift to Deria Martell was spread to the smallfolk in Dorne. Last I heard the Lords of Dorne were splintering into various factions with lots of infighting. This was good news to me. As long as Dorne remains quiet and implodes on its own I have no issues ignoring their existence. I can always go and clean up, after the fanatics have killed themselves.

The review was held at Acropolis keep with Aenys, mother and the three Grandmasters. Aenys and mother reviewed our reports for nearly a week as there were piles of papers reporting our activities over the course of three years. It was followed by their personal discussion and finally the five of us sat down and discussed about the future of the order.

"Rhaegor, I believe you have achieved your goal of the Templars on the combat and economic side. I see no reason they shouldn't expand their operations in the Crownlands. What do you say mother?" Aenys gave his opinion after reading through the report.

"I agree. With the construction of the dragon road network, this would be the perfect time to start The Order's operations in the Crownlands. I assume you three are planning to increase numbers as I can see you are being severely limited in options because of manpower." Mother responded to Aenys and asked about our future expansion plans.

YES. We need more people. There is a lot of stuff that I want to work on, but I'm limited by the lack of people that I can reliably delegate the work to outside the Order.

"We want to remove the limitation of recruitment on the support side. There are two main reasons for this. First, the families of Templar men also want to join the Order and I believe the support side would be perfect. We will be able to educate their children and provide the women chances to work for the Order in non-combat roles. Second, once we expand into the Crownlands the demand of manpower on the support side is going to increase tremendously. On the combat side we plan on raising the number to twenty-five thousand members. Twenty-five Legions should be enough to fight any threat we face and have enough members to patrol the islands and the Crownlands." Maegor explained the expansion plans for the personnel in the Order.

I really don't see the need to limit support member recruitment.

Mother snorted and replied, "Removing the limitation on the support side is tantamount to allowing you three, free reign over the entire economy of the Islands and Crownlands."

Right, we are still a tax-exempt Order and the Crown would lose tax revenue if we hoard all the people. With the amount of profits we make I'd rather keep the tax exempt status.

"However, I accept the expansion of the combat side to twenty-five Legions. I have noticed the recruitment of a lot of non Valyrians in the Order for the support side. I understand it was a necessary, but I would prefer if they are brought closer by blood ties too. Encourage them to partner with the Valyrian blooded men and women so that the future generations will be strongly tied to our blood."

It would have been interesting if blood magic worked like wuxia novels back on Earth. I could give them drops of dragon blood and they become dragon blooded unlocking traits of dragons, with DNA and all the bullshit. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, so I can't really help them. However, I can help them make their children have Valyrian DNA by encouraging them to have children with Valyrians.

"That is already taken care of. Upon realizing that my enhancement ritual only works on unlocking the Valyrian bloodline many of the non Valyrians have already taken Valyrian partners to ensure their children will get the benefits. Honestly, I had no idea that my ritual was limited to only our lineage, but it turned out better this way." I explain the process that I have termed as 'Valyrianization'.

"I told you before, blood magic is very precise especially when you involve lineages. Your theory that our magic might have other aspects make it even more complicated and convoluted. There is no easy solution when it comes to magic. The fact that you are sacrificing lives to unlock the dormant bloodline should have made it clear to you."

I created my ritual based on the bloodline activation ritual and the ritual performed on Aenys, when he was poisoned as a child. It should have worked on all lineages as I had used the same activation ritual for activating Leonna's bloodline. Somehow, I had managed to create a ritual that works only on people with similar bloodlines? I think dragons are somehow involved in this mess and that is another magical abyss that would probably require my entire life spent in research just to break through the surface. I need time to experiment on this, but time is something I really don't have. Being the Hand of the King is the suckiest job in Westeros.

"You will be limited to fifty thousand members on the support side. This will include family members. So, choose your recruits wisely. It should give you enough manpower to run the support and trade side of the Order. As for the remaining family members if they want to get the benefits of being in the Order they can move to Acropolis after swearing the blood oath. You have already established centers for learning there. This is a knightly Order and only those who can serve to benefit the Order should be part of it. The Order's primary purpose is to serve as the shield and sword to House Targaryen for threats outside and within the realm. Don't forget it." Mother explained her allowed expansion for the support side of the Order.

I sighed internally. This was less than what I expected to get out of this meeting. That is actually pretty close to the limit of support personnel I would need to establish a complete Templar network in the entire Crownlands. Touché mother, on the bright side this would keep me from getting them distracted in all my planned projects and experiments. I will have to prioritize on what I need the most. The Acropolis schools should help with the children in literacy and combat training from a young age. So that is not a bad idea. They would be under oath, but they won't have Templar resources. I will have to work something around that.

"Do you have plans to expand Acropolis?" Aenys asked us.

"Not right now, the dragon road network has taken most of the Master Builders' time and attention. Once that is completed, we might look into adding another layer of walls and get more farmland within the walls of the base." Maegor, who was in charge of Acropolis, responded to Aenys.

* * *

**Valyrian Steel Hunt – A Dragon's Treasure**

After Aenys gave Blackfyre to Maegor, Dark Sister was passed to me. Thus, I ended up with possessing three Valyrian steel baldes. It was overkill, so I passed Mehrune to Leonna and Morgul to Rhaena. Alyssa was not happy with my choice as she believed that Aegon should get a Valyrian steel blade instead of Leonna and raised a fuss over it. Mother shut her up fast by explaining that the twin daggers were technically my blades and not the Targaryen family heirlooms and it was my choice to give them to whomever I wanted. My blades to my wives, so fuck you Alyssa. In combat, Leonna prefers a mace or spear with shield and Rhaena prefers a great sword. The daggers would make great backup weapons for both of them till I get them a Valyrian steel variant of their primary weapons.

The Grand Maester had a special book that piqued my interest immensely. It was the list of all known named Valyrian steel weapons in Westeros. Westeros had 227 known named Valyrian steel weapons. However, most of them were lost over the years in various battles that were fought in the kingdoms between each other and with external enemies. Brightroar was one of the swords lost. A lot of the blades were assumed to be in the hands of Ironborn as they tend to raid and steal whenever a strong leader surfaced among them. This information could also come in handy in the future.

Since my failure in my attempts to replicate the properties of Valyrian Steel, I had assigned a squadron of Templars to hunt for Valyrian steel weapons like the lost Lannister great sword Brightroar. Essos apparently had a lot of items made from Valyrian steel. It made sense as Valyria ruled over the free cities in Essos. The squadron had been searching all over Essos for Valyrian steel items for over four years and finally in the year 41 AC they managed to bring back three items made out of the wonder material. All of it was stolen of course, paying coin for Valyrian steel would make me bankrupt. The items were a Dothraki arakh, a quarterstaff and an ingot made from a number of smaller jewelry and other items. I don't know which genius thought that it would be a great idea to use the sharpest magical material known to the world and make a blunt weapon out of it. The ingot alone was enough to make a great sword. The arakh might give me enough material for a bastard sword and the quarterstaff alone had enough material to be reforged into two more great swords.

The heists for the smaller items were all done easily as most of the owners tend to flaunt the items in the open as a sign of prestige. The quarterstaff was found by them exploring a temple ruin near Qarth. The squad that went in lost two members in there to a magical trap. I was expecting something of this sort to happen so I had made sure to assign a squadron that had training on blood magic for the hunt. The two dead members used their blood as sacrifice to deactivate the traps in the temple. Note to self, if you are going to explore ruins take enough sacrifices with you. The temple itself was an interesting discovery. There had to be many such ruins and with treasures. I will have to make more detailed plans to explore those in the future.

The arakh was the most blood thirsty one. We lost thirty men and ended up killing the entire top brass of a Dothraki khalasar. My men tracked down the khal who was wielding a Valyrian steel arakh and after nearly a month of scouting decided to strike. The plan was simple. Infiltrate in to the khalasar by showing their riding, fighting and shooting skills, gain trust of the khalasar and then get close enough to steal the blade. They spent nearly six months riding with the khal and living with the khalasar and finally decided it was time to act. They were however caught stealing and had to fight their way out. The squadron lost men but gained control over the remaining khalasar. The Templars are strictly anti-slavery and freed all the slaves in the khalasar. Those that didn't agree with the slave liberation were allowed to leave the khalasar to join other dothraki hordes.

Among the freed slaves those who had Valyrian blood were given the opportunity to join the Templars, which almost all of them took. The remaining were given the options to move to Westeros or Braavos as anywhere else they would most likely end up in slavery again. The squadron made it back with nearly a thousand new Templar recruits and a lot of settlers for the lands in the Crownlands. Some of the freed slaves also chose to remain in Braavos. The horses used by the khalasar were also sold to in Braavos as transporting them would be expensive and it would be easier to sell the horses in Essos and buy new ones here. The entire debacle was explained as infighting within a khalasar gone wrong and the slaves escaping in the confusion. It was mostly true except that the infighting and the confusion was caused by my men. The exodus to Westeros was also explained as a lot of the slaves had some Westerosi origin. The Lords of the Crownlands were delighted to have new people settle in their lands and I was happy to have more labor to help in the completion of the dragon road network.

Sentinel Robar was the squadron leader in charge of the Valyrian steel recovery team. He had some interesting information about the Lannister ship that was lost along with Brightroar.

"What the fuck happened there Robar? How did you end up taking over a khalasar?" I asked him in an incredulous tone.

"Grandmaster Maegor approved of my plan to infiltrate the khalasar and steal the blade. On the night we planned to act, Khal Ako decided to bring in more slave girls than usual and one of them spotted Adept Carrel as he was about to make his way out of the Khal's tent and raised the alarm. The Adept was able to reach the other squadron members but was closely followed by the Khal and his Kos. It turned bloody and we eventually managed to kill the Khal and enough of his Kos to make them surrender. We went back to the camp and realized I had become the new Khal." He finished explaining with a smile.

Murphy strikes at you even in Murder-Death-Kill world.

"You handled the fallout splendidly and managed to keep our involvement a secret through this entire debacle. I will ask Master Lucas to personally go visit the families of our fallen brothers and provide them any help they need." I commended him.

"Grandmaster, for filling our ranks with Valyrian blood I believe Essos would be easier than recruiting in Westeros. My khalasar was a small but growing one but it had around a thousand men and women with Valyrian lineage just as slaves. I can see the bigger khalasars have more of them. I would like to liberate our blood brothers and sisters from their state and allow them a chance to join our Order." Robar expressed his idea on recruitment.

That is indeed an interesting proposition, the Valyrian lineage of the fore mentioned slaves were probably a result of Valyrians masters fucking or raping their slaves and then letting them loose. I can see a significant percentage of the slaves in the free cities have Valyrian lineage especially in Volantis. My enhancement ritual to unlock the Valyrian bloodline in slaves would probably be seen as heresy and blasphemy by the Dragonlords and masters of Old Valyria. However, they are dead and I can do whatever I want to strengthen myself and my family. By freeing slaves, we will end up creating a force of loyal members similar to TV show Daenerys. No wonder they all accepted the blood oath easily and joined the order. Aenys will be overjoyed if he finds out that we are starting to liberate slaves he doesn't have to know the finer details about the Valyrian lineage.

"Sentinel Robar, that is a good suggestion. I will talk to Grandmasters Maegor and Rhaena and set up a plan to liberate the Valyrians in slavery. Is that all for the verbal report?" I asked him

"I have one more topic to report on Grandmaster. I have intelligence about the location of the Lannister ship that attempted to sail to Valyria. The ship was last seen leaving Volantis about twenty years after the Doom in the Century of Blood. Most believed that the ship was wrecked in the Valyrian peninsula similar to Emperor Aurion Selaeros' fleet during his attempt to reclaim the lands in the peninsula. My men hired a ship to travel towards the Valyrian peninsula to see if we could find any shipwrecks on the way there. Unfortuanately we found nothing till we reached the smoking seas. We didn't wasn't to risk that sea but I had another idea."

He laid out a map of the regions surrounding the Valyrian peninsula.

"Everyone assumed that King Lannister took the straight path to Valyria from Volantis similar to Emperor Aurion."

He drew a line connecting Volantis straight to the Smoking Sea.

"What if he was prudent enough to realize that just following Emperor Aurion to his death might not be the best course of action and tried to go around the peninsula to the other side?"

He drew a second path that looped under the peninsula connecting it to the Isle of Cedars.

"Why the Isle of Cedars?" I asked him.

"I tried to follow this path Grandmaster and I needed to resupply as water was running out in the ship. Velos or New Ghis would be the places to stop and resupply before setting out to the peninsula. Trade ships make the stop at New Ghis, I chose Velos as it was closer to the peninsula. I found several shipwrecks near Velos that might have been from the Doom's tidal waves or some other cause. The golden fleet was not among those ships."

He drew a third path on the map from Velos to the eastern Valyrian city of Myria.

"I assume he sailed to Myria instead of going back into the Smoking Sea. The closer I reached to Myria I could sense the magic in the air grow stronger. I soon realized that I would die from magical overload if I continued along my path and turned back to the Slaver's Bay. As I was turning back I saw a fleet of sunken ship in the water near the coast of a small island. I believe that fleet is the golden fleet. Back in the Century of Blood the magical miasma must have been stronger and even reaching as far as I did would have killed the crew of my ship. My squadron had magical training and we are somewhat proficient in blood magic so we sensed the risk. King Lannister might not have been aware of what he was running into and could have crashed his fleet into the small island outside the Myrian coastline."

This is interesting news indeed.

"Sentinel, you have done a splendid job on this assignment of yours. Take your well-deserved rest and provide a list of potential replacements for our fallen brothers in your squadron to Master Lucas."

"Thank you. Grandmaster. Glory to the dragonlords!" He finished his salute and left my solar.

If the city of Myria was almost accessible to Robar I could technically try to reach it on a dragon and see if I could make it. I could definitely reach the golden fleet and retrieve Brightroar as long as the Lannister King didn't lose it before leaving to Valyria. I would have to wait till I have my dragon though. On the bright side my path is clear and I have enough patience. I need to find more information about magical miasma and ways to counter it if I want to make an attempt at getting to Myria. God, I'm starting to think like a dragon hoarding treasure. In my case the treasure is Valyrian steel.

* * *

**How to Tame a Dragon – Rhaegor Style**

Dragon eggs were a strictly guarded commodity of House Targaryen. It made sense, because after Emperor Aurion's suicide run into the smoldering ruins of old Valyria we were the only family that had dragons. Losing dragon eggs meant there was a chance that someone with Valyrian blood could hatch and bond to them. They could eventually become a direct threat to our supremacy.

Female dragons mate once every twenty years or so and they lay two to three eggs every time they mate. Meraxes had laid three eggs, before her death in Dorne. Quicksilver, Dreamfyre and Silverwing were dragons that hatched from those eggs. Silverwing was the dragon hatchling that hatched from an egg, which Rhaena placed in the crib of her younger sister Alysanne. The remaining hatchlings and young dragons were all Vhagar's children.

Hatching dragons was a miracle of the century moment in the TV show back on Earth. In reality it was just like watching an ordinary egg hatch. However, the show's eggs were petrified and had to be reawakened. Our dragon eggs were alive and healthy so dragon eggs hatched regularly. When an egg is placed in the crib of a child the dragon that hatches from it typically bonds to the child. Viserys, Jaehaerys and Alysanne had their eggs hatch and the hatchlings Bluefyre, Vermithor and Silverwing bonded to them. Sometimes the egg hatches but the dragon hatchling doesn't bond to the eggs' owner. This was the case with Aegon and his two eggs. They hatched and didn't bond with him we later assumed that Aegon's desire to bond only with big dragons were the reason the hatchlings didn't bond with him.

For the first five years of a dragon's life they are called hatchlings. This is the most vulnerable period of their life. Their scales are weak and they require a lot of food and attention from their parent for them to grow stronger. They shed their scales and grow new stronger ones around the age of five. They are now called young dragons. Drogon and his brothers from the TV show would have been young dragons during the final two seasons. These dragons are already peak predators and have no equal among animals. They can still die to weapons like ballistae or scorpions and lucky bow and crossbow shots as the scales are not fully developed.

When dragons reach an age of around twenty is when the dragons are called adult dragons. They shed scales again to grow really strong scales as they start their second growth spurt. At this point only siege weapons at close range can be a threat to them. They keep growing bigger, stronger and faster till they reach an age of fifty, when hit another growth spurt. These dragons are called mature dragons. They are basically flying tanks at this point. They can only die to other dragons or old age. Meraxes' case was a close range lucky scorpion shot to its eye that managed to pierce all the way to its brain. The odds of such a shot happening were one in a billion but I had already established Murphy's Law worked really well in this world too.

After lots of debating with Rhaena and mother, I convinced them that instead of attempting to hatch new eggs for my children, they would try to tame the already hatched dragons. I didn't really convince Rhaena, but she listened to mother and gave in. Surprisingly, Aenys agreed with me as there were several wild young dragons flying around the Dragonmont but he started swearing and shouting at me when I mentioned I would take my **three years old **twin girls to tame wild young dragons. He really fits the overprotective grandfather mold perfectly. He calmed down after I explained to him that we will have Balerion and Vhagar with us to prevent anything dangerous from happening. However, he agreed to the plan only after I agreed to take him and Quicksilver with him as additional protection.

The first dragon we attempted to tame was a dragon that failed to bond with Aegon when it was a hatchling. It was a dark grey young dragon about twelve years old. The dragon was our first attempt as it was not an aggressive dragon and had really low chances to attacking the girls. The poor dragon was scared shitless of the three hulking dragons surrounding it and tried to run back deeper into its cavern. However, it stopped after seeing my daughters and looked at them curiously.

I let my girls down on the ground and asked them, "Girls, what do you think of that dragon?"

Aurea stared at it for a few moments and then lost interest in the dragon. Rhea on the other hand started walking towards it and I focused my senses on the dragon. It was not hostile and only showed curiosity.

"RHEA NO!" Rhaena shouted in panic from my side and tried to stop her.

"Rhaena, let her go. The dragon is not hostile." I tried to convince her and got a very angry look from her. We both walked with Rhea as she walked towards the young dragon.

As we came close the dragon lowered its head and started sniffing Rhea. She booped the dragon on its snout as if it was a dog, Damn, the scene looked so cute. Rhea kept contact with the dragon for a while and nothing happened.

After a couple of minutes the dragon's curiosity turned to happiness. It let out a loud snort and the other dragons surrounding it also visibly relaxed.

Part one SUCCESS!

Rhaena immediately pulled Rhea into a hug and pulled her away from the dragon.

"Relax Rhaena, see I told you no harm would come to her and she now has her very own dragon protector." I gloated to Rhaena in smug satisfaction and got a kick to my shin in return.

"Ouch, what was that for?" I asked wincing in pain. God damnit, she did not hold back.

"That was for nearly making my heart stop. I'm not letting you near her for the rest of the day." Rhaena responded as she pulled Rhea away from me. Rhea started giggling seeing our antics. Traitor.

"Well, now that the dragon has bonded with Rhea it needs a name. What do you want to call it?" Maegor asked me sitting on his seat atop Balerion.

It was a good point. It needed a name. Looking at its horns it was a male dragon and I wanted to name it in theme with Rhea's name. I remember reading somewhere that names have power. I'm not sure if it was back on Earth or here in this life.

"How about Hyperion?" I asked Rhea. The titan of the sun would be a powerful name and it sounds close to Balerion.

Rhea let herself loose from Rhaena's hug and walked towards her dragon.

"Hyperion?" she booped the dragon again. The dragon was happy and this time let out a loud roar of approval. Right, in the cuteness of the scenery I almost forgot that I'm standing in front of the peak predator of this world.

Rhea turned and started walking towards me and smiled happily before getting pulled away by Rhaena into another hug.

"Still not going to let you near her today." Rhaena huffed at me and walked towards Dreamfyre carrying Rhea with Hyperion following them

"You know we still have to try a dragon for Aurea are you planning on leaving before that." I asked Rhaena teasingly.

She froze and turned around with a glare. Well apparently she did forget. I hope the process goes smoothly for Aurea as well.

The entire group started to move towards the next dragon cavern. This was a dragon older than Hyperion by around three to four years. It hatched in the wild on its own and was an aggressive one. It was a black dragon similar to Balerion. It just looked like a scaled down version of Balerion when I scouted out the dragon last week. It apparently also liked picking up fights with other young dragons based on what I heard from the locals in the area. This is definitely a dragon that needs to be tamed or could become a pain in the rear in the future.

"Aenys, this one is a bit aggressive so be careful. It might try to attack Quicksilver so let mother and Maegor go in first. Once they have subdued the dragon we can go in." I warned Aenys about the aggressive dragon.

"You sure, you want to try tame this dragon now?" Aenys asked me.

"Yes this is one I really want under our control. In a few years it will become an adult and if left unchecked it might become a problem to other hatchlings and young dragons living here."

The last thing Aenys wanted would be to let something become a threat to the younger dragons. Worst case scenario is we might have to put down the dragon and be done with it. I have faith that my golden girl will be able to tame this one. Maegor and mother move into the cavern with their dragons and we heard several roars of intimidation from Balerion and Vhagar. After a few moments it calms down.

"You can come in now." I heard Maegor's voice letting us know that it was safe.

We walked in and were treated to the funniest sight I have seen for a while. Balerion literally had one of its feet planted on the top of the dragon's head and the result looked like the black dragon was in a kowtow position.

"This one really has some spunk in it and it has some grudge with Balerion. He is that small and still tried to attack Balerion." Maegor explained what had happened.

That is interesting info indeed. It hatched in the wild and Balerion was technically its father so the only reason it would have a grudge is something should have happened when it was a hatchling. It would explain the dragon's aggressive nature considering that Balerion was top dragon of Dragonmont. I hope this will end as smoothly as Hyperion.

Rhaena got down from Dreamfyre and gently helped Aurea and Rhea dismount too.

"What about this one, Aurea?" I asked my girl and waited to see what happened as I focused my perception on the dragon.

Aurea stared at the dragon for a few moments and then started walking towards the dragon which was still struggling to get itself free from under both Balerion and Vhagar now. As Aurea got closer the dragon focused its attention on the tiny human approaching it. I still only sensed anger and pride from the dragon but it had stopped struggling.

Oh my god I think this one might be the Prince Vegeta of dragons.

As we got closer to the dragon the dragon's anger started to slowly subside. Aurea reached and touched the dragon on its snout. The dragon's emotions started to subside rapidly and after a few moments there was nothing. We stood there waiting for a few minutes while, Rhaena was twitching on my side with anxiety. Finally the dragon let out a loud snort like Hyperion and we all relaxed.

Part two also SUCCESS!

Right. We have to name him and I just have the perfect name for this black dragon.

"Aurea, how about Neltharion for its name?"

She looked at me and smiled and then turned to the dragon and said, "You will be Neltharion."

Damn, way to be assertive. She didn't ask like Rhea did with Hyperion and just assigned the name. I grabbed her before Rhaena could and Rhaena started glaring daggers at me.

"Ok fine. I'm not going near them for the rest of the day." I handed over Aurea to Rhaena which seemed to calm down Rhaena.

There was no reason to be worried. I mean we only literally strong armed a dragon into bonding with my daughter, but apart from that it was just a normal walk in the Dragonmont caverns. I don't think Aurea would have even got close enough to bond with the dragon without my strategy even if she was an adult.

A year later we did the same thing for my sons. Daneal bonded to a silver green young dragon and we named him Dagon. Samael bonded to a red gray young dragon and we named her Sylvanas. My sons' dragons didn't need the level of restraint that was needed for Neltharion but it wasn't as simple as Hyperion either.

* * *

**Faith Militant Cold War**

The Faith Militant during the TV show led by the High Sparrow was basically a frenzy mob of smallfolk in King's Landing. The actual Faith Militant is something completely different. The frenzied mob of smallfolk called Poor Fellows do exist but hey are superseded by a very organized group of knights called the Warrior Sons. I like to call them rainbow knights as they wear rainbow colors and basically look like they are going to join a pride parade. Ironic, considering the Faith's stance on homosexuality.

The poor fellows were smallfolk men that had given up life outside of enforcing the Faith. Unlike the show they wore a red star badge indicating that they belonged to the Faith Militant. They were basically mafia masquerading as men of Faith. They ran protection rackets in the cities and in the smaller towns they were just street thugs. They were fanatically loyal to the Faith and any attempt to go against what they perceived as doctrines of the Faith were met with public censure, beatings and sometimes in rare cases, even executions.

The rainbow knights were the ones keeping the poor fellows in check and preventing them from causing a smallfolk rebellion in the name of the Faith. Most Lords of Westeros worshiped the Seven but did their own activities once outside of the Sept. Some of those activities would be perceived by the poor fellows as going against faith doctrines.

The rainbow knights or Warrior Sons were similar to Crusader knights back on Earth, they had a major presence in all the cities and big towns of the realm. Their total number was estimated to be around five thousand spread throughout the realm. Knights who had no chance of inheriting lands typically joined the Warrior Sons. They were to give up all gold and lands to the faith before joining the order. It was funny because most of the knights who joined them didn't have any gold or lands. They wore shiny full plate armor and carried kite shields with a rainbow sword on it. They also wore rainbow colored tabards.

As they were a part of the Faith they didn't have any issues with equipment. The Faith was similar to the Catholic Church back on Earth. They were fucking loaded with cash and could afford to spend a lot on the rainbow knights. This was proven when we found out that their plate armor is made with a steel silver alloy just to give it the shine. It was fucking dumb as it made the plate weaker than regular steel. They could have made better looking armor by adding chromium or nickel and retained most of its strength. Well now they have an armor that could be penetrated by Templar arrow fire. Idiots.

With my marriage to Rhaena and Megor taking a second wife, the High Septon started riling them up against our family and openly condemned our practices as being blasphemous. This prompted the poor fellows to attack people who supported our rule openly. In King's Landing there were many attacks on merchants and regular smallfolk who spoke in support of the royal family. Aenys was very upset at this development and asked me to tighten security in the capital. I deployed a Legion of Templars to keep them in line. I didn't want to trigger a conflict with the Faith as that had the potential to escalate unpredictably. So the situation in King's Landing turned into a stalemate between my men and the poor fellows.

"Legate Aurane, I have read the report and good job handling the poor fellows. We have reduced their attacks on the smallfolk of the city but I want to completely remove their influence from the capital." I announced to the Legate of the Sixth Legion which was deployed in King's Landing after the attacks started

"Grandmaster, my men have found several of their protection rackets and hideouts. We could easily stage an attack on them citing this as a reason."

Hell no. That would be escalation and I need things to die down.

"Legate, the last thing I want to happen is the situation to escalate. Let them do their stuff as long as it doesn't affect us negatively. However, we can use this information to slander their name. If we take away their credibility, the people will lose their respect and once that happens they lose their influence over the smallfolk." I explain my idea.

"So you want us to not involve us directly and undermine them indirectly? That can be easily achieved by spreading rumors amongst the smallfolk. Adding a bit of truth to a bunch of lies would work best if we choose to do that."

That is not a bad idea. False propaganda mixed with truth and the people will start to see the Faith as the actual villains.

"Go ahead and start making it happen. Do it slowly. Anything bad happening in the city? Blame the poor fellows and the Faith. Anything good happening? Credit the royal family. The smallfolk being completely on our side opposing the Faith should be our end goal."

"It will be done Grandmaster. What do we do about the Warrior Sons in the Capital?" he asked me

"Based on our intelligence from the Kingsguard they are actually trying to pacify the poor fellows and are trying to avoid escalation like us. However, if that changes they will be the dealt with in a way that fits the dragon lords." I add with smile.

"Very well Grandmaster, I will take my leave. Glory to the dragonlords!" He salutes and leaves.

Similar events happened all over the Crownlands and Templar forces were deployed to every town where incidents were reported and the stalemate extended to the entirety of the Crownlands with the smallfolk strongly supporting the royal family and opposing the faith.

In other kingdoms the situation was different. The Reach was split into two faction between the Hightowers and the Marcher Lords. Hightowers were opposing the royal family and sided with the High Septon. Marcher Lords and Tyrells were staying neutral neither opposing the faith nor the royal family. So the poor fellows had free reign to do what they wanted. I wanted to curb their influence and decided to extend the dragon road network to Tumbleton. This served to get the small folk in the region to interact with the small folk of the Crownlands and I hoped my propaganda would spread through the Reach as well.

The Westerlands were completely opposing me and I had no real way to influence them without deploying Templars in their lands. I really didn't want to do that as I was partly responsible for the mess. Lannisters must really hate me for my marriage to Rhaena. So I decided to ignore them for now. Aenys was planning to add the Westerlands for his next royal progress and I could use that as an opportunity to spread my propaganda there.

Riverlands were similar to the Reach split between two factions. Some of the Riverlords were angry at Aenys for letting the Red Harren incident happen as it undermined their authority among the smallfolk so they didn't want to stop the poor fellows. I extended the dragon road network to Maidenpool and attempted to do the same that I did with the Reach, spreading my propaganda thorough the smallfolk.

Vale and North were firmly on the side of the royal family. The Lords of the Vale completely ignored the High Septon and stomped out any activity of the poor fellows in the kingdom. Whatever Maegor did with the Arryns worked perfectly in our favor. After my suggestion to Lord Stark they built up the northern fleet again and they became a more active in the realm's affairs. They also formed an order of knights modelled after the Vale knights and called them 'Northern Knights'. They suck at naming stuff. One of Lord Stark's nephews is currently serving as Kingsguard under Aenys.

After Maegor put down the Vale rebellion and ensured the safety of Lady Anya Arryn and her children, Lord Stark personally came to King's Landing to thank him for saving his sister and nieces. There has been talks of betrothal between his granddaughter and his sister's grandson in the Vale. Looks like Maegor's son will marry a Stark girl. There were other marriage alliances between the Vale houses and houses of North proposed upon seeing the success of the Stark-Arryn alliance. Aunt Rhaenys' plan for unifying the realm was finally coming to fruition.

The Faith Militant were like a persistently annoying itch and I was severely limited on my options to deal with them as none of us wanted to escalate the conflict.

Aenys' planned royal progress started with Winterfell and he planned to go to the Iron Islands next followed by Lannisport in Westerlands. He missed out Iron Islands during his first progress and wanted to cover that during this one. Winterfell was because Maegor wanted to explore the castle to look for clues regarding the Builder's magic. Lannisport was because he wanted to ease the tensions that existed between the Lannisters and the royal family. I was stuck in King's Landing dealing with the realm's governance while my brothers were off enjoying a vacation.

This royal progress however, was where the illusion of peace that House Targaryen enjoyed was shattered and realm saw what happened when they tried to poke a sleeping dragon.

* * *

**Gawen's Journal**

"_We maesters pride ourselves as the knights of the mind. During my time in the Citadel I have come across many young men talented and gifted in the arts of honing the mind. However, when I listen and answer to the inquisitive questions of young Prince Aenys, I can predict that the heir of The Conqueror will grow up to be one of the greatest minds this world has produced…"_

"_Prince Maegor's appointment to the Office of the Hand was considered by many Lords as a sign of weakness of King Aenys. I realize now that it was the most prudent decision made by the King. The rebellion at Vale has been put down in a way that showed true decisiveness and wisdom…"_

"'_The Wild Prince' as he was referred to during his days of youth proved that there is nothing wild about his genius mind. Prince Rahegor's invention of 'Specs' revealed to me that behind the wild nature of 'The Silver Knight' was a mind of a genius inventor. Now his feat in convincing the Lords of the Crownlands to build a dragon road network showed me that his skills with governance and ruling are second to none too. Prince Maegor's and Prince Rhaegor's total disregard for the Faith is really troubling and I hope to convince them to see the folly of their ways…"_

_\- _excerpts from the Journals of Grand Maester Gawen describing his experiences with the sons of Aegon I, the Conqueror of Westeros.

"_This is utter madness. The blasphemous behavior of the late King's brothers and their refusal to repent was the reason the Faith were forced to take up arms against them. Now crowning of Prince Maegor over Prince Aegon, the heir of King Aenys, is not in accordance with the laws of succession in this land and such an act would only serve to further enrage the Faith. It is my duty to point out this folly to the late King's brothers and get the rightful King crowned."_

_\- _the last entry in the Journal of Grand Maester Gawen before he was executed for treason by Prince Rhaegor Targaryen, the Silver Knight.

x-x-x-x-x-x

_**Still looking for a Beta reader. Please send a PM if interested.**_


	11. Omake - Northern Knights Origin

**Winterfell 33 AC**

**Brandon Stark**

It had been an interesting week so far. The youngest prince's ideas of strengthening the North were all well-reasoned and I didn't notice any hidden motives as I have come to expect from dealing with southrons.

After our hunt and the capture of the Shadowcats, he has been holed up in the castle library from dawn till he retired for the night, every day. The men told me the tale of the capture of the shadowcats. Shadowcats are the bane of hunts, as hunting parties typically avoid shadowcats and look for other prey. The two princes not only stole the prey from the beasts but also took on the two shadowcats alone and came out unscathed with tamed monsters. If what the men said was true Prince Rhaegor's cat wasn't even able to land a single bite or scratch on him as he effortlessly dodged them. The Targaryens are a scary bunch even without their dragons.

As I was walking towards father's solar pondering over the incidents, I heard a commotion in the training yard. It looks like the men are picking up a fight again. I hope it is not with the royal contingent as that could turn bad. I should probably check and see. Just in case.

As I approach the yard I see my nephew and some of finest men preparing to fight against a group of men that I have seen around the princes. Must be the Targaryen bannermen. This would be an interesting fight. They are only using blunted training swords so I don't have to worry. The Tragaryen's men seem to be relaxed and not taking the fight seriously. Typical southron arrogance. These are the finest men of Winterfell, they are going against. Would teach them a lesson to not underestimate us hardened northerners.

Their leader gives out orders in High Valyrian, I suppose. I never really felt the need to learn the tongue. I looks like five of their men and five of ours are going to clash. My nephew Edrick is the one leading the fight on the opposite side.

As soon as the castle Man at Arms gives the signal, the Valyrians rush in a wedge formation and separate my men into two groups. Their leader picks out Edrick and engages him. My nephew is put on the defensive right from the start and I see him struggle to get into his combat flow. Edrick is quick and manages to keep parrying the blows but his counters are easily dodged and the Valyrian keeps up the pressure. Edrick eventually slips up as the Valyrian breaks through his guard and has his sword pointed at Edrick's throat. I look around to see all my other men on the ground groaning as they seem to have taken a few hits with the blunted swords.

There is cheer from all the men surrounding the yard for the winners. The Valyrians Knights won an honorable fight and there is no reason to begrudge then for it.

I walk towards Edrick as he is helped up the leader of the Valyrians.

"Looks like you leant to not to shoot your mouth off not knowing who or what you are up against." I tell Edrick as he gives me a wild grin.

"That was the most dominant and beautiful swordplay I have seen. You must be famous knights in the southron lands." I tell the Valyrian Knights' Leader. "What is your name Ser?"

"Russel is my name Lord Stark. I'm not a Ser and I believe fame tends to get to one's head. The Princes thinks we are good enough to guard them and their family. That is all we care about." The Valyrian Russel replies nonchalantly.

They must be the Princes personal bodyguard them.

"I see. You are more like personal bodyguards similar to the Kingsguard?" I ask Russel

"Hells no! Don't lump us together with those hypocrites. We follow no false gods. We swear by and follow only the divine wisdom of the dragonlords." Russel replies in an annoyed tone.

So they are not Faith anointed Knights. That explains his first reply. However, why do they think comparing them to the best Knights of the realm was beneath them.

"Er. So you are the princes' personal sworn men?" I ask them as my confusion grows.

"**We are their finest warriors, men who give ourselves to the glory of the Dragonlords. We were molded like clay, and forged in the furnace of blood. We are of draconic will and steely muscle. We were given the best weapons and armor. We will be untouched by plague, sickness or disease. We will have tactics, strategies and tools so that no foe can best us in battle. We are their shield against the enemy. We are the Defenders of House Targaryen. We are their Knights and we know no fear."** Russel replies with pride and conviction.

I takes a few moments for me to get to the meat of his near fanatical proclamation. So they are Knights but sworn to the Targaryens rather than the Faith. I didn't even think that would be an option.

I think Russel just gave me another idea on how to improve the North. I need to plan accordingly.

On another unrelated note why do I have a sudden suffocating feeling of dread at the thought of these Targaryen Knights..

x-x-x-x-x

Thanks to Xrucible for the idea.


	12. Act 1 - 9 Faith Uprising - Regicide

**Red Keep, King's Landing 42 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

Aenys has dumped the ruling of the realm on my head and gone off to gallivant around the realm on a royal progress with most of the family. Mother and Alys Harroway were the only ones left behind in Dragonstone. Mother occasionally came to visit me whenever she was bored. She is pushing seventies and still rides Vhagar without any issues.

The progress' first stop was Winterfell. The North had no issues with Maegor taking multiple wives as his first wife was barren. Therefore, Maegor went with the entourage to Winterfell in hopes of finding the secrets to the Builder's magic. Leo was also hyped up about the possibility of unearthing the secrets to the Builder's magic and learning it. Somedays I think he loves Maegor more than me. I'm totally not jealous at all.

With the dragon road network completed, Templars were fully active in the Crownlands and in the fringes of the Riverlands and Reach. We were able to suppress most of the Faith Militant aggression and even managed to portray the poor fellows as evil incarnate to the smallfolk in the region. Propaganda war was a success. However in the kingdoms of Reach, Stormlands, Westerlands and the Riverlands the Faith was running amok trying to paint the royal family as abominations in the Eyes of the Seven. Vale, having suppressed the Failth Militant in the early stages, was neutral among the smallfolk but most of the nobility were leaning towards the royal family.

Aenys' trip to Lannisport was a final attempt at trying to convince the Faith Militant there to lay down arms and resolve this cold war peacefully. If anyone could convince the Faith to lay down arms and come to peace talks, it was Aenys. The man had maxed out his charisma stat. Sometimes when compared to the timid and indecisive boy, of his youth, it was like looking at two different people.

Oldtown was too hostile to attempt peace talks and Lannisport was their second biggest establishment. Martyn Hightower was still pissed off at Maegor's second marriage while the Lannisters did a u-turn in their hostility towards us after Aenys pulled a masterstroke.

* * *

**Flashback – A few months back.**

**King's Landing **

The dragon road network is about to be complete with only the final stretch of the road between Maidenpool and Antlers left in our plans. We were also heavily debating if we should add Harrenhal to the network but we pushed the idea to the second phase when we expand the network into the Riverlands and Reach. We were in the Small Council discussing post completion plans when suddenly Aenys who was silent for a while cleared his throat. We stopped our discussion and looked at him.

"I want to host a grand tourney after the completion of the work. We have the coin and we need celebrate our achievement," he said with a serious face.

That is going to be a huge drain on the coffers and I'll probably have to deploy two more Legions to the city for the duration of the tourney. However, it will provide us the opportunity to show the Lords of the realm that they could achieve great heights if they cooperate with us and stop being petty.

"It will have to be grand enough to have every Lord of the realm interested in it. How much do you want to spend for the tourney?" I asked him

"The winner of the joust gets one hundred thousand dragons and half for the, how do you say it, runner?" announced Aenys.

"Yes brother." I replied rolling my eyes.

Seriously I preferred when he chastised me for using Earth phrases and words. Now he tries to sound cool and ends up butchering half of it.

"Melee and Archery will get eighty thousand for winner. Fifty thousand for axe throwing winner. Are we missing any anything?" he asked me excitedly.

Damn he would give Robert Baratheon a healthy competition with the way he wants to spend on the tourney.

"I do not believe so. We do need to have a melee for the squires. Ten thousand for the winner of the squires' melee?" I asked him.

He thought for a few moments and then nodded his head.

I turned to the Master of Coin and asked him "Lord Celtigar, how are the finances looking? Should there be any issues in handling the tourney financially?"

"No issues at all, Your Grace," he responded.

"Anyone else here see any issues we missed?" I asked the rest of the Council.

"We will need more men during the tourney to maintain law and peace." Lord Massey, the Master of Law, announced.

"I will ask for some men from Dragonsurf and Duckendale City Watch to be sent here for the tourney period." I replied to him, which seemed to satisfy him.

"Your Grace, with the Faith Militant attempting to create hostility towards the royal family, such an event would serve us to reduce their influence among the Lords who participate. However, there is a chance the Lords might be attacked for answering the call to attend the tourney. That would reduce participation of Lords who fear the Faith." Ser Corlys gave his analysis.

That is a valid point if the Lords don't show up in fear of reprisal from the Faith it would cause a significant reduction in the participation.

Aenys responded with the solution, "I want to invite the High Septon and the Most Devout to the tourney and attempt to settle the fight with the Faith peacefully. That way the poor fellows wouldn't attack participants and we can settle this conflict once and for all."

That could actually work. Two birds with one stone.

"What do you think, Ser Corlys?" I asked the Lord Commander

"I can see the High Septon accept the offer. I don't expect any peaceful resolution of the conflict with the Faith but it would certainly ensure that Lords attending won't be targeted by the Faith Militant." Ser Corlys replied.

"Alright then let's make the announcement and invite the Lords." I announced to the Small council.

**Two months later**

Everything had gone smoothly so far. Though there were minor issues of a few pockets of poor fellow militants harassing the travelling Lords, mostly their journey to King's Landing was peaceful.

The hidden costs in organizing a tourney of this scale is almost half of the prize money Aenys wanted to give away. Food, accommodation and security were the primary gold sinks. We need to establish a permanent solution to hosting tourneys in King's Landing almost half of the preparation expense was building the temporary shelters, the contest areas and spectator stands. We already had an amphitheater built in Dragonsurf. I wondered if a Coliseum like building, maybe inside the City, would be beneficial in the long run. I will have to get the Templars to run numbers on that.

With such high prize money we had another issue. There were too many participants and we had to run qualifiers for the actual main event. The events went smoothly for the most part. The melee was the bloodiest one as we had a lot of broken bones and a couple of deaths. This is considered normal for big tourneys and no one even batted their eye. Leonna's Paladins and Initiates made a lot of coin by providing treatment and first aid to injured contestants. They even had stalls set up for the purpose.

There were a several surprises for the main event. Some mystery knights without any sigils or unknown sigils managed to get through the qualifiers. One even managed to make it to the jousting main event and that sport is fucking hard if you don't train yourself regularly. They will probably be defeated by one of the Kingsguard. The Kingsguard knights didn't have to go through the qualifiers to get to the main event. However, they were limited to participate in only one event and all of them chose the joust. If they won the prize money would just go back to the treasury as all their expenses and needs are taken care by the crown.

The melee was the first sport to kick off the tourney's main event. It had three mystery knights participating. They were a part of a group of four mystery knights calling themselves 'Knights of Narrow Sea' I wanted to focus on them and see if it was someone familiar but held back to see how they would perform without spoilers. It was like watching Royal Rumble back on Earth only with tourney weapons. There was a stage where the fighting took place and fighters would be eliminated if they fell off the stage, yielded or were killed. Eventually the crowd of fighters thinned out and there were around ten left. The three mystery knights were still fighting on the stage.

It was then when, one of the mystery knights was knocked out of the stage by a Vale knight. The other two immediately ganged up on the poor Vale knight and knocked him out. Seeing them work together the remaining six participants decided to gang up on them. The two mystery knights settled in a back-to-back stance each covering the back of the other. They held their ground against their opponents fighting back tooth and nail to remain active in the fight. Their fighting style was really familiar but also different. It felt like a really dumbed version of Maegor's fighting style. Of course with him being a famous tourney knight it made sense that some hedge knights attempted to copy his style. They slowly managed to defeat one of the six fighters by pushing him out of the stage. The falling fighter in his last ditch effort managed to pull down one of the two mystery knights with him.

Up on stage the previously formed alliance broke down almost immediately and chaos ensued. The remaining mystery knight was clearly much superior to his partners, and it showed clearly, as he didn't have to cover for his partners anymore. There was also a drastic change in his fighting style and I immediately realized who the trio of mystery knights were. Now the fight was almost like watching Maegor fight on the stage and the mystery knight easily dispatched the remaining fighters and won the melee.

The crowd went ecstatic at the result as a dark horse victory is more celebrated than an expected victory. They were cheering hard for the winner and the knight was basking in his victory encouraging the crowd to cheer even more. Have your fun while you can. You, my dear knight, are going to get your ass whopped by your mother soon.

Aenys looked at me with a smirk. He had also figured out who it was. Well, this is going to be interesting.

Aenys commanded the knight, "Ser, you have fought well and shown your mettle as a warrior to win the melee. Knight of the Narrow Sea, I would like to know the name of the man I'm honoring this reward to."

What the fuck are you doing Aenys?

"Your Grace, I'm not a knight yet. My name is Leoric Waters son of Prince Rhaegor Targaryen." Leo replied to Aenys' question after removing his helm.

Oh good. I'm going to be killed by Leonna today. It wasn't a secret that Leonna's twins were my children but this was not how neither Leonna nor I expected the announcement to the realm to happen. The Faith, Lannister and Hightower contingents were glaring daggers at me as the crowd went quiet. This is not good at all.

"Kneel." Aenys commanded and Leo dropped to one knee.

Oh well, at least he is going to be knighted by the King. Might reduce the brutality with which I'm going to get murdered later.

Funnily, Aneys didn't have a sword with him, so I passed Dark Sister to him.

"_In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave. _

_In the name of the Father I charge you to be just. _

_In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent. _

_In the name of the Maid I charge you to protect all women. _

_In the name of the Smith I charge you to be of unwavering faith. _

_In the name of the Crone I charge you to choose wisely._

_All men must die. Arise Ser Leoric Targaryen._"

Aenys completes the knighting ceremony by the alternate shoulder tapping and passes the blade back to me. My brain literally short circuited at that moment by the series of events. He used the full Faith knighting ceremony and added the high Valyrian words used to worship the aspect of Death. To top it all he just **legitimized** Leoric as a Targaryen. Oh boy, he wants to win brownie points with all the haters.

Not only that, I realized this entire series of events had been planned. Aenys knew if Leo entered the fight he would win easily and they hid his skill till the end on purpose to show him struggling for a victory. As expected I saw the other two Knights of the Narrow Sea join Leo, who was grinning like a loon. Both had their helms off and I could see the faces of Viserys and Alys Velaryon granddaughter of Lord Velaryon. Viserys was the first to get knocked off and Alys was pulled down by a falling fighter. There is one more knight missing from this posse and I had a strange feeling that I would see that knight once the joust starts.

How long was this planned and why didn't he tell me? Looks like Arty is going to be knighted and legitimized today too. The chances of her winning are small as she has to go through the Kingsguard but I'm sure Aenys wouldn't care about it. Getting to the main event joust alone is enough to get anyone knighted just based on skill.

**A few hours later**

The joust was the final event for the tourney. Artemis need to win six rounds to win the event and she will meet her first Kingsguard in the quarterfinals. The first two rounds were easy for her and she won in the first tilt. She was much faster than her opponents and that showed. Her third opponent was Rogar Baratheon and that was a really tough one. I thought she was going to lose but apparently Rogar took a nasty hit in his previous round, so Arty still had a chance. In the first tilt both got hit but managed to stay on the horse. The second and third tilts were just shield contacts and in the fourth she managed to unhorse Rogar.

By the time she came back to the tent she was wincing slightly with pain. The first hit must have cracked a rib. Leonna was angry and worried. She applied first aid and it turned out to be just a nasty bruise and no fracture. We strongly suggested her to drop out of the event but she wanted to try her luck with a Kingsguard and remained stubborn. Leonna patched her up and she was ready for the next round.

In the fourth round she faced Ser Raymond Baratheon. The first tilt was just shield contact. In the second tilt Arty got hit on the arm and Ser Raymond got hit in the chest but both managed to hold on. She had to joust without a shield in the third tilt. I wanted to call it off but Arty wanted one last try and I couldn't say no to puppy dog eyes. Of course, I got kicked by Leonna for failing to convince our daughter. What am I supposed to do when you both are so fucking stubborn? Like mother like daughter. Raymond also dropped his shield in to show his chivalrous nature. She managed to hit Ser Raymond again on the same spot, unhorsing him and narrowly avoided getting hit on the shoulder by leaning backwards matrix style. Where the hell did she learn that? What the hell has Maegor been teaching these kids?

She wanted to try one more tilt but this time I had Leonna backing me up to say no to her. However, she made it to the last four and defeated a Kingsguard knight at the age of thirteen. That was fucking awesome.

Ser Edrick Stark won the joust after sixteen tilts in the final round against Ser Olyver Bracken. He crowned Alyssa as the Queen of love and beauty. Well the joust money was going back to the royal treasury.

Aenys then called Artemis up to the stage and repeated the ceremony he did for Leoric. Sera Artemis Targaryen, the fifth female knight in the realm. The Lannister contingent were extremely happy that they now officially had ties to the royal family. Martyn Hightower kept looking like he bit into a lemon. Aenys played them perfectly and they couldn't do anything about it. The funny thing is no one else other than Aenys and the kids knew about it. So no one could argue that this was staged.

**Later that night**

Leonna was initially very angry at me for allowing the kids to participate in the tourney, but after the latter events she assumed I orchestrated the events to get them legitimized. I didn't bother to correct her. She was in tears as she hugged the two newly knighted twins. Both Leonna and I were extremely proud of their achievement. Maegor and I set the record for the youngest knights at sixteen and now that was broken by my kids at thirteen. The four of us celebrated their knighting and legitimization with a private dinner in the Tower of the Hand.

After we finished our dinner I was preparing to retire for the night. Leonna leaned in to my side and whispered, "I think someone deserves a special reward tonight."

Ooh this is going to be good. I turned around to see her give me a teasing smile.

"What reward would that be, my lady?" I ask her pulling her into my arms.

"Why don't I show that to you?" she said moving in for a kiss.

We shared a passionate kiss and after what seemed like an eternity we broke apart. I picked her up in my arms and walked towards the bed while she was giggling.

Once I reached the bed I gently let her down and kissed her again and slowly undressing her while she did the same to me.

Within moments we were naked. I stood there admiring her glorious naked beauty. All the years of training and exercise meant she was sporting a perfect athletic body. She had muscle definition but it was the lean muscle type, adding her C cup breasts and perfectly toned ass, she could be a supermodel back on Earth.

I pushed her onto the bed and dived straight into her bosom. I felt her hands grip my cock and she started stroking it. It was already erect and ready to plough into her cunt which was also wet as I pushed a couple of fingers in and started to rub her g-spot. After a few moments we switched to the 69 position and her handjob turned to a blowjob as I started licking her clit while keeping the ministrations of my fingers on her g-spot steady.

"I'm close, faster." She exclaimed and went back to sucking my cock.

Within moments we both reached our climax.

"God, that was good." She exclaimed as she snuggled into my arms as I started sucking on her tits.

"Yes, it was. Are you ready for round two?" I asked her as I was getting ready to plough her cunt.

"Wait. I still haven't shown you, your reward."

She got up and walked up to the closet. She pulled out a small trunk and opened it. She must have had the trunk moved in earlier today as I had never seen it before. Inside the trunk was an assortment of BDSM equipment in leather. Cuffs, whips, paddles, silk ropes, gags and even a couple of wooden dildoes.

"You sure you want to do this?" I asked her.

She must have taken time to prepare the stuff.

"I was going to give it to you for your upcoming nameday but today's events made me prepone the reveal. We had discussed BDSM play back on Earth but never got around to trying it. So let's do it here, in the Red Keep," she explained her motives with a teasing smile as she went back to the bed.

"As you wish, my lady." I say as I pick up the cuffs and then proceed cuff her hands to the legs of the bed and repeat the process for her legs.

She was lying there on my bed eagle spread and cuffed. I aligned my cock to her cunt and started fucking her. As she was getting close to her climax I stop and let her fume in her helplessness. After a moments I repeated the process. She started swearing at me this time for stopping. After the seventh time she was begging me to let her come. I wanted to see how long I could extend this denial play. This was way more fun than I had expected it to be. On the eighth attempt I lost control and we both ended up climaxing. However, she came so hard that she passed out. I guess I need more practice. I wonder if we can convince Rhaena to join us in this BDSM action. I released Leonna from her restraints and ended up sleeping almost instantaneously after that.

* * *

**End of Flashback – Back to present**

**Red Keep, King's Landing 42 AC**

Aenys' peace negotiations didn't go far. The High Septon demanded that all Targaryens should repent and accept the Seven before they could even consider peace between the Faith and the royal family. By repent, he meant something akin to the walk of shame Cersei underwent in the show. Needless to say they went back empty handed and Aenys was really close to outlawing the Faith Militant in the Crownlands. The only reason we didn't was, we managed to convince almost all of the Most Devout to give up this stupid crusade and actually focus on the development of the realm. We figured if we could remove support for the High Septon and turn the Faith against him our victory would be complete.

That was the primary reason for Aenys' attempts to negotiate peace with the various chapters of the Warrior Sons. I had my own negotiations going with the King's Landing chapter to secure a deal with them. The royal party were already in Lannisport and Aenys' negotiations with the Warrior Sons there also had started.

I heard a sudden roar and I realized that it was Balerion's. What is Maegor doing here? Last I heard news, he stayed back in Winterfell with Leoric while the rest of the royal party set sail to the Iron Islands. This was three months ago.

I walk out to see both Maegor and Leoric getting off Balerion while lugging two bags. Once the guards announce that there is no need to panic, things start to calm down in the Red Keep. Geez, one would think they must have got used to dragons being present around us Targaryens after forty or so years.

"What the hell are you two doing here? Weren't you supposed to be in Winterfell? Did you give up or did you find something?" I asked the two as they reached me.

Maegor gave me his trademark grin and pointed to the bags they were carrying. Did they really find something? What the fuck? So unfair. We go back to my tower and settle down.

"So what did you two find?" I asked them both.

"We followed your idea looking for areas with magic energy spikes within the castle of Winterfell. Though there is a lot of magic in the old towers of the castle it was uniform and there were no spikes like we sensed in Storm's End." Maegor started his explanation.

We found a lot of places with magical energy spikes at Storm's End which was where we usually found the stone tablets written by Elenei. I figured the Builder must have left similar clues within his personal projects. So Winterfell was our best guess followed by the Wall.

"So after the royal party left Winterfell we traveled to Nightfort at the Wall. You would like the Wall, that place is filled with powerful magic so searching for magic energy spikes was like searching for water in the sea. It was everywhere. Leo came up with an idea there." He paused and looked at Leo.

Leo continued, "If the Builder had left something there, he must have made sure there was something different in the magic at the place where he hid it. So instead of magic spikes we started to look for places where there were no magic at all and we found a vault."

He looked a bit nervous and focusing on him he was indeed nervous. My guess is, they did something stupid there.

"What did you guys do after finding the vault?"

* * *

**Flashback - Two months back.**

**Nightfort, The Wall 42 AC **

**Leoric Targaryen**

"Uncle, this is it. This must be where the Builder must have hid his legacy." I exclaim in joy.

Uncle Maegor has a frown on his face as he started examining the ornate wall in front of us. We believe that it is likely a door leading to the treasure.

"We still need to find out how to open this door. The vault looks perfectly sealed. There are no hinges or handles to use for leverage. It must be magically sealed." Uncle Maegor explains his thoughts.

"What if we use magic to force it open?" I ask him.

"The Builder is not an idiot I doubt our magic would even make a dent on this wall. Even Balerion would have a hard time breaking through this wall if it is really the treasure," he replies still examining the wall.

"Let's try it and if it doesn't work we can try other methods." I urge him.

He sighs and replies, "You are correct, we don't have another option here."

He then takes a dagger and cuts his palm and places it on the wall channeling magic energy though it. There was no reaction for a few moments and then suddenly the wall starts glowing and we hear a few clicks from behind the wall. Two palm shaped depressions appear on the wall.

"This is interesting. Somehow the magic here must have sensed us both. Look they are both for right hand palms." Uncle Maegor points out at the depressions.

"Is this some kind of test?" I wonder loudly.

"It is possible. I have no idea what a powerful sorcerer like the builder was thinking. It also might be a trap. Remember what Sentinel Robar's report said about the ruined temple near Qarth?" he asked me.

Oh yes two men dying to a magical trap in a ruined temple.

"I don't think using others as sacrifice would work here if it is really the treasure." I reply to him with a frown.

"It would work if it is a trap. The question is, would we lose our chance of getting the treasure if we leave this place now? This is definitely the builder's work. This is still solid rock and it molded itself like it was made out of clay. It might seal itself completely if we leave now." He explains his concern.

This is fucking annoying we are so close to it and we have no idea on how to proceed without losing our chance to get the treasure.

"Uncle, let's try it. All men must die. If this is our end so be it. We at least would have tried and failed rather than failing without trying. This is an opportunity that we will not get even if we tried again for our entire life." I make my heroic proclamation.

Uncle Maegor walks over to me and smacks me on the head.

"Ow, what was that for?" I ask with a whine.

"If we die here Rhaegor would resurrect me and then proceed to kill me, repeating it till he is satisfied. You father is one of the few, that I wouldn't want to piss off even in death. Now stop talking about dying and let's try to solve this," he explains.

We try looking for clues for several minutes. I suddenly have another idea.

"Wait, the Templars upstairs will come and check if they don't hear back from us soon. We can ask them to bring sacrifices to see if it is a trap." I explain my new idea.

"It would have been a splendid idea if not for this," he points to the depressions on the wall.

They were closing up very slowly. So we are on a time limit too.

"Uncle if it is closing then the chances of it being a trap are extremely small. Traps are meant to kill those who wander in not test them within a certain time," I announce my inference.

I walk forward and place my palm in the depression. I turn to him and say. "Let's try this."

He sighs and follows what I did. Nothing really happened. He then passes his dagger to me. Oh yes, forgot about the blood.

I make a cut in my palm and place it in the depressions. Everything went black.

* * *

**End of Flashback – Back to present**

**Red Keep, King's Landing 42 AC**

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

".. we both passed out and the Templar guards that came looking for us woke us up.", Maegor gave me the explanation of their escapade.

I'm not sure what I would have done in such a situation. The chance to get the Builder's magic probably might have superseded my survival instinct.

"The door opened into this hallway that had inscriptions in High Valyrian." Leoric quipped from the side.

What the fuck? Valyria didn't even exist back then. Now that I think about it wasn't Elenei's inscriptions also in High Valyrian. Missed that entire tidbit in my excitement.

"My guess is whatever happened at the wall was something similar to the blessing you received. It let us understand the inscriptions in a language we are most comfortable with," explained Maegor.

That makes sense. With High Valyrian being the household language for Targaryens it would be our most comfortable language. Magical script that changes to our most comfortable language is indeed intriguing. That is almost like telepathic communication through stone inscriptions. No wonder the First Men in the Age of Heroes didn't have an outright written script.

Languages were a funny aspect in Murder-Death-Kill world. It was not uniform over the continent as depicted in the show. There were dialects and variations so diverse that, the Starks speaking the northern dialect will not understand the Tyrells speaking their dialect. High Westerosi was the developed to be the common language for the entirety of Westeros thanks to the Andal invasion. High Westerosi was British English. Even smallfolk learned to speak two languages, their local dialect and High Westerosi. So in a way the show was correct but that is grossly simplifying the situation.

Similarly High Valyrian was Latin. Valyrian spoken in Essos was similar to the languages descended from Latin like Italian, French, and Spanish, but not exactly those. Yi Ti spoke a variant of Mandarin. Somehow the two worlds have ended up with the similar and different languages at the same time.

"I assume your bags are filled with paper filled with transcriptions from the hallway?" I asked them

"Yes, the interesting aspect here was, only Uncle and I could see or enter the hallway. The Templars couldn't and we weren't going to let the Night's Watch know about its existence," Leo explained.

That is interesting indeed. I assume Elendar's and Aylanei's troves would be similarly limited to Leonna and myself alone.

"That explains why you needed two months to transcribe the hallway. Have you two figured out anything about the magic?" I asked them.

"I initially didn't want to practice it till we got back to Acropolis but two months at the Wall is a boring affair and I ended trying the magic. The thought process is very simple. The world is filled with magic and the land has its own kind of magic. We have to align our body's magic energy to the land's magic energy and once we achieve that we will be able to command the land depending on how strong our magic is. Most of the instructions in the hallway are ways to reach that perfect alignment," Maegor answered with a wry smile.

That is intriguing and frustrating at the same time. We hoped that these troves would hold the secret to unleashing our bloodlines but based on Maegor's expression there was no info.

The magic seems similar like Star Wars force users, with the Cosmic Force equivalent being the magic of the world and the Living Force equivalent being the magic we possessed. Though that is where the comparison ends, as our magic appears to be capable of far more than what force users could. It also bears a close resemblance to the benders of Avatar. I wonder if I could do blood bending if I choose water as my domain.

"You two must be tried from the trip. Rest up and we can discuss this later. I have a meeting with the Warrior Sons and in a few hours and that is going to kill my mood for the rest of the day." I announced to the two.

Leo nodded and left towards his chambers.

"Any progress in your negotiations?" Maegor asked as he poured himself a drink.

"It has been slow. Most of them understand that the High Septon is being unreasonable but their laws and traditions prevent them from doing much. However, the poor fellows and a few Warrior Sons still think of the High Septon's words as divine wisdom and refuse to accept anything else. At this point our best result would be if the High Septon dies in a natural way and is replaced with someone saner." I explained with exasperation.

"I hope Aenys has luck with the Lannisport chapter. I didn't expect the Lords of the realm to be so cowardly and resort to inaction. We should fucking burn them all for treason." Maegor responds with a frown.

He was right. If the Lords of the Reach, Stormlands, Westerlands and Riverlands nipped the problem in the bud like the Vale Lords did, we wouldn't be having this issue in the first place.

"It just feels like our effort to deescalate is being countered at every turn. The Lords are just too selfish. Even in the Stormlands, Rogar can't really do much without a full Templar deployment. I think that is probably the next kingdom we should expand to. Centralizing the power in the Baratheron hands, within the Stormlands, would go a long way in securing our southern borders." I continued my rant.

"Borys will be happy, he always hated the sycophantic Lords. I was thinking of making a trip to Pentos again but I should probably stay in Dragonstone in case things really take a turn for the worse," he responded.

Maegor has been in charge of freeing and recruiting Valyrian slaves in Essos. We set up a trading firm in Pentos that was for trading goods on the surface but we used it as a front for our slave liberation operation. We had two Legions comprised entirely of liberated slaves working there. They had extensive knowledge of the slave trade's hidden faucets and were helpful in identifying ways that could accelerate the process. To make sure the Legions didn't end up doing something that would expose us Maegor spent a lot of time in Pentos directing their operations. It also served as a honeymoon for Alys and him.

"I would say, stay in Dragonstone till Alys gives birth and it is safe for the child to travel. That should give us enough time to resolve the tensions." I suggested to him.

Alys was in her later stages of pregnancy and was due in a couple of months. Maegor and Alys befriended a healer they met in Pentos, named Tyanna, who was very helpful during Alys' early days of pregnancy. They brought her with them to Dragonstone, before the royal progress.

Leonna was happy to have another Initiate for the Hospitallers, especially one that had knowledge on magical healing. Magical healing was an area we didn't have complete knowledge on. The remains of the Valyrian archives had some information but it was incomplete.

"Right, I hope Leonna is back before Alys goes into labor. Though Tyanna is a good healer I would prefer Leonna to be present." Maegor stated in a nervous tone.

"Leonna will be flying back with Rhaena and all the children in a few days. So you have nothing to worry about." I tried to calm his nerves.

"I'm heading to Dragonstone tomorrow and will be back next week to help Leo analyze our transcriptions from the Builder's vault," he announced.

"Wait so anyone can read your notes and learn the magic to control the land?" I asked him.

"From what I could understand with the inscriptions, the magic has been passed to Leoric and me. I believe it is similar to the blessing Leonna and you received. Unless we master it we cannot pass it down to others. We had Templars try to open the vault and it didn't work." He explained with a smile.

Fucking magic makes no sense in this world. No one else would probably be able to access the vault till Maegor or Leo are able to understand and control the magic behind it or they both die.

"Let me guess to master the magic we have to unleash our blood?" I added sarcastically, knowing that it was probably true.

Maegor nodded and responded, "I think there might be a way to for us to unleash if we follow the techniques and training listed there but I'm not completely sure about it."

Great, I guess once I find where my destined troves are, it will be training montage part two. Why can't I get unlimited power by just finding stuff like in games? Reality sucks.

**One week later**

The last message I received from Aenys was a couple of days back. He was also getting nowhere with the Warrior Sons of Lannisport to support him in his quest to establish peace between the Faith and royal family. They were the same as the King's Landing chapter. They believed that the High Septon was insane for attempting to escalate the conflict, but were bound in chains of laws and traditions which they couldn't break without destabilizing the entire thing. However, this was good. If we manage to convince all the chapters that the High Septon was insane we could overthrow him and set up a new precedent.

Suddenly I hear a loud dragon roar but I realize that it is not Balerion from the sound. I don't have any other dragon rider scheduled to show up today.

I head out to the yard to see Aenys in his combat armor covered in blood dismounting from Quicksilver.

"What the fuck happened? Whose blood is that?" I ask Aenys as I point to the blood in his armor.

"We were ambushed by a group of fanatical poor fellows on the way to finalize our discussion with the Warrior Sons. We had to fight our way back to the castle. I would have taken some hits, if not for you convincing me not to go near the Faith Militant without armor." He explains with a chuckle at the end.

Well fuck, peace talks just went down the drain. Anyways fuck them, we tried our best for peace and they ruined it.

"Any deaths on our side?" I ask Aenys as we start walking towards his tower.

"Ser Corlys and Ser Edrick among the Kingsguard. Ser Edrick drew their attention away and he along with Ser Raymont killed their way through the attackers opening a path for the rest of us. Ser Raymont was injured but he will be fine. With the Templars providing cover we were able to retreat quickly. The Templars are cleaning up the remnants of the poor fellows in the city. Anyone wearing a red star in Lannisport is probably already dead. Gods this is a mess." He responds with a tired sigh.

Well looks like the Faith Millitant managed to piss off the Targaryens, Velaryons, Starks and Baratheons and in a single attempt. I must say that is downright fucking stupid. Not to mention what I plan on doing to them.

We hear another roar and this time it was Balerion. Well Maegor is here to join the party.

"Maegor was planning to visit today. That is Balerion." I inform Aenys in response to his puzzled look.

"Good, now that we have started hostilities there is no more need for this mummery. I want the High Septon kissing my feet as soon as possible." He responds with fury laced in his voice.

"All in good time, brother. Let's get you cleaned up first." I respond with a chuckle.

"Gods, I do stink." He starts laughing with me.

We reach his tower and he leaves to take a bath. Maegor eventually reached us and I explain what happened to him.

"I have half a mind to go burn down the Starry Sept right now," smirking at my expression Maegor continues, "I know, I'm not going to do it. What is the plan now?"

"They want to fight. Let's show them what dragons do when they are enraged. We are looking at a full Templar deployment. We have four kingdoms where we need to exterminate vermin. I don't want to burn down everything so dragons for tactical use only." I announce my plan.

Maegor nods and continues, "It will take up to two months to prepare for this. I should head to Acropolis to get things started."

Aenys finishes his bath and comes out. He is looking pale.

"Are you feeling alright? You look sick." Maegor asks him.

"I'm just tired from the ride from Lannisport." Aenys responds and continues, "How long will it take you to deploy the Templars?"

"If we send out word today we should have at least seventeen Legions ready to fight in two months." I answer him.

"Good, send word to all the Lords of the realm that the poor fellows are traitors to the crown and either they put down their arms or face death. Any Lord that sides with the Faith will be stripped -" Aenys stops mid-sentence as he holds his chest and collapses.

Fuck! That is not good at all.

**Three days later**

After Aenys collapsed we had the Grand Maester check to see what was wrong. The useless maester couldn't find anything so we brought Aenys to Dragonstone on Balerion to have Leonna diagnose him. He was unconscious and we had no idea what was causing it. To make things worse Alys went into premature labor and it was pandemonium at the Dragonstone Castle.

Maegor and Alys lost their child, who was stillborn despite Leonna's best efforts. Maegor was heartbroken hearing the news but somehow managed to pull himself together as things started going worse for Aenys. Everything pointed out that, Aenys was poisoned and he still hadn't regained consciousness.

Rhaena and mother picked up Alyssa and her children from Lannisport on their dragons. Aegon was the only one missing as he had taken off earlier to go to on a tour of the Westerlands. He had a squadron with him so we weren't worried about his safety. However, considering that Aenys was having a heart attack his presence might be needed here soon.

The timing of this entire thing was so fucked up. Leonna came out from Aenys's room with a somber expression.

"What is going on?" I asked her.

"He regained consciousness but I don't know for how long he will stay that way. His heart is slowly failing. I don't know if it is the effect of poison." She announced to the group gathered in the hall.

FUCK! In this ass backwards world, heart failure means death.

"Can we talk to him?" I asked Leonna.

She nodded and said, "Yes. He is awake now".

We moved into the room and found Aenys propped against a pillow on his bed, looking drained and tired.

"Alyssa, I'm sorry love. It looks like this is the end for me." Aenys took Alyssa's hand as he tries to console her, who was sobbing hard.

He then looks towards Maegor and me and said, "My brothers, Aegon is not ready, please help him."

Maegor nods at him. I replied, "Don't worry brother, he is in good hands."

Aenys smiled and then looked at Rhaena who was sobbing on his other hand, "Rhaena, if there is anything that I take pride in my life, it will be you. You need to be strong, and become the linchpin that holds the family together, like mother did for all these years. You are also probably the only person who can keep these two idiots in check."

Rhaena snorts and replied "I will always make you proud father."

Aenys smiled and hugged Alyssa and Rhaena. That was his last conscious action before his death.

Aenys Targaryen died in the second day of the eleventh month of 42 AC.

* * *

**One Week Later - Acropolis**

We were preparing for Aenys' funeral when we received news of the Faith Militant uprising. As soon as the Faith heard news of Aenys' death they rose in revolt against the Iron Throne claiming that Aenys wasn't suited to be King. Their announcement also stated that Aenys earned the wrath of the Seven, who claimed his life as punishment for his failure to be a faithful King. Aenys' funeral ended up being a small one with only the Lords of the Crownlands attending it.

All of suspected that Aenys might have been poisoned during his time in Lannisport and the Faith's proclamation pretty much confirmed it for us. Well if the Seven claimed his life, it was time to eradicate them from the realm.

Aenys' Small Council reached Dragonstone by ship. We found out from them that the Warrior Sons have started fortifying the Sept of Remembrance and were attempting to Siege the Red Keep. That was downright stupid of them but I have come to expect the Faith Militant to be stupid. The Red Keep was built to be impregnable. The Templars were in charge of its defense so traitors can be ignored as well. Let the Faith bang their heads against the wall. We will deal with them after we crown the next King.

Maegor had already issued orders for the Templars to muster. So we are still in the process of mustering our primary force. The Lords of the realm now received a letter denouncing the entire Faith Militant as traitors and guilty of regicide. Any Lord who sides with the Faith would lose all their lands and titles and be killed by dragon fire. The threat should be enough to make the Lords who support the Faith from doing so. We knew that irrespective of our threat, a lot of the Lords will side with the Faith.

Maegor, Rhaena and I had finalized how to deploy the troops. When Maegor made a sudden announcement.

"We can't let Aegon ascend the throne."

What?

"What?" Rhaena voiced what I was thinking.

"We are going to fight a war. A regency is not what we need now. You two know about Aegon, Aenys was right, he is still too impulsive and brash to take on the role." Maegor explained his reason.

That is sadly true.

"You want Rhaena to ascend?" I asked him.

"Rhaena or me. Oh don't look surprised the reason I gave earlier was secondary. The primary reason is, he doesn't have a dragon yet. The Lords won't respect him and even if we win the war he will look weak to have relied on us to win the war. It will be a bigger mistake than Aenys giving me Blackfyre." Maegor explained his thought process.

Nope, not going to fight for that pointy chair. It is good that I'm not an option by default.

"I gave up my claims to the throne." Rhaena replied to him.

"Not officially. The main reason your marriage to Rhaegor was not received well by the Faith is because they feared that he was using your claim to usurp the throne. I know it is stupid, but the idiots will believe anything." Maegor explained it to a surprised Rhaena.

The ball is in your court my darling wife.

"I will stay true to my word. If one of us needs to ascend the throne, better the rider of Balerion than me." Rhaena announced her decision.

Well, it looks like Maegor is going to be king next.

* * *

**Two days later – Dragonstone castle.**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

When we announced the decision to crown Maegor, instead of Aegon, to our family the reaction was mixed. Mother was pissed that Aegon was skipped and started throwing a tantrum. I was the one who managed to somewhat calm Mother down after explaining the reasons. Mother for some reason was still glaring daggers at Rhaegor. Did they have an argument? Grandmother accepted the choice but she was vary how the court and the Small Council would treat the action.

Well Lord Velaryon was angry that his grandson was being passed over but after listening to reason he grudgingly agreed that it was the wise course of action. Lord Celtigar and Lord Massey were neutral about it. Ser Corlys Velaryon was dead and his successor Ser Raymont Baratheon, the new Lord Commander also accepted our choice. Grand Maester Gawen was the only voice of opposition from the Small Council and he was overruled. Gawen was also very angry over the fact that he was not allowed to treat father after he proved to be useless. He also received a warning from Rhaegor and Maegor about parroting the High Septon's words as that would be considered as treason in the current political situation.

We are in the amphitheater of Dragonsurf city and grandmother just finished crowning Maegor as the King of the Six Kingdoms and all the titles that went along with it. I think the entire population of Dragonsurf had assembled to watch the crowning ceremony. This is the first time I have seen the amphitheater full and overflowing with people. It feels surreal.

Gawen walks into the stage. I wonder where this rat went during the crowning ceremony.

"Your Grace, you are making a mistake. Please reconsider. Prince Aegon should be King and Prince Maegor could be the regent." He proclaims to the crowd.

"Well Grand Maester you are just a bit too late. The crowning ceremony is already over." Rhaegor responds to him with a chuckle which was followed my laughter from the rest of the folks in the crowd.

"Only the High Septon has the right to crown a King. This ceremony is a sham in the Eyes of the Seven. You are making more mistakes by angering the Faith. The Faith took up arms only because of your blasphemous behavior and lack of willingness to repent." Gawen shouts over the sounds of the laughter.

Is this man out of his mind? We are in the middle of a war with the Faith, and he is openly denouncing us and supporting the Faith?

I see Rhaegor take a couple of steps towards Gawen and beheads the Grand Maester with a quick draw strike of the Dark Sister. He turns around and then announces to the audience.

"Well, this is the first example of what is going to happen to traitors who support the Faith's actions against the royal family. My brother late King Aenys was murdered by the Faith by the cowardly act of poisoning. Anyone who feels that they would like to support the side of the regicidal traitors better pray to their gods. Fair warning though, we are not in the mood to listen to prayers."

The crowd goes wild with cheering. He does know how to turn the crowd to his side.

That was an interesting end to the crowning ceremony. The royal family along with the Small Council head back to Dragonstone Castle.

I finish checking with the castellan about details for the feast and then turned into a hallway to hear mother yelling at Rhaegor.

"How is Aegon not having a dragon my fault? It was his own hubris, refusing to bond to hatchlings or young dragons." I hear Rhaegor shout back at mother.

"If you had not seduced Rhaena, she would have married Aegon and they would be crowned King and Queen now. It wouldn't have mattered if Aegon had a dragon," yelled back to my husband.

This is not good.

"Alyssa, stop imagining things just because it is sounds convenient for you." Rhaegor responds back in exasperation.

"You stole his wife, his heirlooms and now his crown too. It is all your fault." Mother is now starting to sound hysterical.

Rhaegor pulls mother into a hug.

"Alyssa, I know that losing Aenys has been hard on all of us. Think for a moment. Would Aegon stood back and let us fight the war if he was crowned as King? He is a brash child. He would have rushed headfirst into battle. Do you really want that to happen, with him not having a dragon to aid him in the fight?" Rhaegor explains to mother as she breaks down into tears.

He continues, "I promised Aenys that I would take care of him. I don't intend to break that promise. We are heading into war Alyssa there is a chance that things can go wrong at any time. If we are not united against our enemy we will be weak and the enemy will exploit it to their advantage."

"Promise me that you will show hell to the ones responsible for Aenys' death and please don't let get Rhaena involved in the war." Mother requests my husband.

I cough to announce my presence. "Mother, there is no way in hell I'm letting go of a chance to avenge father. I'm a Grandmaster of the Templars, the fight has already begun."

Mother breaks free from Rhaegor's hug and holds me by the shoulders and starts shaking me.

"Rhaena, I don't know how I could live with myself if I lose you too. Your place is not in the battlefield."

"Mother, I was trained by the Warrior Queen herself. She did not train me to be a coward, I'm a dragon rider and I don't intend to die in the hands of smallfolk." I proudly proclaim.

"Rhaena, you will not be fighting in this war." Rhaegor responds to my proclamation.

"What? Why?" I ask Rhaegor outraged.

"The only dragons that I'm going to deploy are Balerion and Vhagar. None of the other dragons are mature dragons, Dreamfyre hasn't even reached adulthood yet. Do you want it to die in the war?" He asks me.

He does have a point. I don't want my dragon to get hurt.

He cups my face and says, "Rhaena, you are a Grandmaster, I need you to be the one that handles the various Templar deployments from behind while Maegor and I are in the frontlines. Only then I will be able to fight out there, without any worry, knowing that the operations of the Order are in hands of someone I trust the most."

I feel my cheeks burning up under his hands and all I can manage in the situation is nod at him helplessly.

"Good, does that satisfy you Alyssa?" He asks mother, who nods at him in affirmation.

* * *

**Dragonstone 48 AC**

We hear a knock on the door. Rhaegor releases me from the embrace and proceeds to open the door. Aurea and Rhea enter the room and I immediately notice bandage on Aurea's palm and rush towards her.

"What happened? Are you alright? Did someone hurt you?" I ask her in panic.

"No mother, no one hurt me. Rhea and I were experimenting on something we found recently and I had a small cut in my palm. Rhea has already applied medicine to it and it should heal by tomorrow." She explains to me.

"What were you doing that led to you getting hurt?" Rhaegor asks the question that was on my mind.

Rhea pulled a dagger out and placed it on the table. I see Rhaegor's face go pale.

He grabs Aurea's hand and asks her, "Did you get cut by that dagger?"

His voice is panicked. What's going on?

Aurea scoffs at him and says, "Papa, I'm not suicidal. I got cut with Morgul."

Rhaegor relaxes as Aurea pulls Morgul and places it next to the first dagger. Huh, the first dagger is made out of Valyrian steel too. I wonder where Rhea found the dagger. Rhaegor notices it too and picks up the first dagger.

"As you can see the dagger that was used by the assassins on uncle Maegor and you were made out of Valyrian steel." Aurea explains to us.

Someone powerful and wealth enough to use Valyrian steel as disposable weapons? I gulp involuntarily.

"That still doesn't explain why you cut yourself with Morgul, young lady" Rhaegor chides Aurea.

"Rhea?" she asks he twin something and Rhea passes a vial to her.

"This is a numbing solution, one of Aunt Leonna's inventions. It numbs the body where it is applied almost immediately. It is a mundane one, no magical enhancement and shouldn't work on activated bloodlines. Mother apply this over your arm and see if it has any effect on you," she says as she passes the vial to me.

I indulge her and apply a couple of drops on my forearm and spread it around to no effect.

"I don't feel its effect, my love. You were correct, it doesn't work on activated bloodlines." I respond to her with a chuckle.

She grabs the vial from by fingers and then applies it to the blade of Morgul.

"Mother stretch out your other arm, please."

I can see where this is going and I do as she asks me. She makes a small cut on my arm and I feel my arm going numb to my horror.

"My arm is numb." I exclaim in shock.

"Don't worry mother its effect wears off after an hour. This is what caused my cut in my palm." Aurea explains what she found out.

"Valyrian steel nullifies magic. It's the fucking cold steel of this world" Rhaegor mutters from the side.

"Cold steel?" Aurea asks with puzzled expression.

"In my previous world there was a myth that magic was nullified by cold steel and magical creatures would fear cold steel weapons." Rhaegor explains with a smile.

"It does sound similar, but yes Valyrian steel nullifies living magic, I'm not sure about other types though." Aurea explains her findings.

That should be easy to test. I focus my magic on the palm of my arm, and manage to conjure a small speck of fire in the palm of my hand.

Aurea understands what I wanted to do and pokes the fire with Morgul. The fire is immediately extinguished. This is intriguing. I felt like my connection to fire was momentarily disrupted when she poked my fire with the blade.

"It nullifies elemental magic too. There goes my idea of Valyrian steel armor." Rhaegor comments from the side with a frown.

Rhaegor picks up Morgul at the blade end and attempts to channel his magic.

"My perception still works."

He then cuts one of his fingers with the blade.

"And there is goes. Our bloodline magic works even if we are in contact with Valyrian steel but stops the moment it breaks our skin. This is really interesting."

Wait a minute.

"So your assassins knew our about this and used it to their advantage?" I asked him.

"It is possible, but father's initial theory was wrong. Exhaustion doesn't take away our immunity to poisons." Rhea responds.

Rhaegor pulled both the girls into a hug and commended them for their excellent work.

I suddenly had a thought.

"Girls did you check the poison used on the blade? Was it magical?" I ask them.

Rhea pulls herself out of Rhaegor's hug and pouts at me. Why?

"Of course I did. It was manticore venom with magical alteration to be undetectable and fast -" she stops mid-sentence as she realizes the reason behind my question.

"The assassins didn't know about its nullifying powers. However, they knew about activated bloodlines to tailor a venom specifically to counter it. They just used the Valyrian steel to bypass our armor and to get the venom into our blood." Rhaegor explains to them.

"If uncle Maegor and you had been using black steel instead of palass for your armor the blade might have been stopped from fully penetrating." Aurea ponders loudly.

"Black steel is only slightly better than palass when it comes to stopping Valyrian steel. Maegor's assassin managed to plunge a blade into his heart and mine was an inch deep cut. I don't see black steel faring any differently in this situation." Rhaegor explains with another chuckle.

Wait we are still missing something.

"How was the magical potency of the poison still active after contact with Valyrian steel?" I ask the three.

There was silence in the room for a few moments as everyone pondered over the possible answers for my question.

"I think the potency was suppressed when it as in contact with the blade and it was reactivated once it left the blade and entered blood." Rhae explained her thoughts.

"What did you feel when Aurea poked Morgul into your fire?" Rhaegor asks me.

"I felt like my connection to fire was cut temporarily." I explain how I felt.

"Then Rhea is correct. It blocks magic as long as it is in contact with the medium. Blood, poison and even the elements. This might be the edge we need over the sorcerers belonging to the Entity. They would not have thrown away Valyrian steel weapons if they knew what this material's true capabilities were." Rhaegor explains his thoughts.

He continues saying, "However, the need to hunt known Valyrian steel has gone up exponentially. Fuck, we also need to find something to defend against Valyrian steel."

He is correct. If Valyrian steel is all that it takes to make our magical lineage useless, we need to find something capable of stopping it.

"Shields made out of Valyrian steel instead of armor might work as a start, but you are correct. We need to find something that can protect us from attacks, reliably." I reply to his rant.

I wonder why the dragon lords would develop a weapon capable of killing them with ease.

x-x-x-x-x

**Still looking for a beta reader. Please PM me if interested.**


	13. Act 1 - 10 Faith Uprising - Smackdown

**Rhaegor Targaryen**

The war with the Faith turned out to be similar to a Starcraft game's Zerg rush. The Faith Militant's total strength was estimated to be around one hundred thousand across the four kingdoms of Reach, Riverlands, Westerlands, and Stormlands. We had access to twenty Legions which came out to be around twenty-five thousand men, including support. We were outnumbered by four times in just numbers. However, all Templars were fully armed and trained for combat while the opposition had only around five thousand Warrior Sons and even they were significantly inferior in gear and combat training compared to the Templars. The poor fellows wore cloth and fought with whatever weapon they could scrounge and had overwhelming numbers as their primary advantage.

In open-field combat, the Templars would eventually get overwhelmed by the superior numbers that Faith could throw at us. It just meant that we had to strategize to use our superior firepower efficiently. Though this was not considering our two mature dragons in the balance of the equation.

The events of 'Lannisport Purge' kick-started our retaliation against the Faith prematurely.

* * *

**Lannisport – 42 AC Shortly after Aenys left Lannisport on Quicksilver**

**Legate Aurane**

"How many of our brethren did we lose in the skirmish?" I ask my Sentinels gathered around me.

"We had a few injuries but nothing too serious. Though, they will be not able to participate for the upcoming fight," is the response I get from my second in command, Sentinel Varian.

That is good, even though we lost two Kingsguard knights, it was their sacrifice that enabled the King to reach to safety. We start walking towards the castle yard where the rest of the men from my Legion are gathered. They want blood, the blood of those who dared to attack the King and I going to let them have it. I stand before them and draw in a deep breath.

"Men of the Sixth Legion, we were assigned to escort and protect the royal family for the duration of the royal progress. We almost failed and disgraced ourselves by letting the Faith rabble, mount an attack on the King. We managed to prevent the worst from happening but we cannot let this slight go unanswered. They have insulted our King by calling him an abomination, insulted our Grandmasters by calling them heretics. Let's show these rabble who the heretics and who the truly faithful are.

Lord Lannister has shut down the gates of this city and stopped all transport from leaving the city at my behest. We have a city filled with traitors that are trapped, we have a city that needs purging. They dare to show themselves out in the open with their red stars. The only red I want to see on their cloth is their blood. We were chosen and trained for this very purpose. We will take no prisoners and show no mercy. Trust your arrows, trust your blades, trust the divine wisdom of the Grandmasters and let's show them that they were correct to trust us to do our duty." I finish my proclamation.

The entire legion roars in cheer in response.

"WHAT IS YOUR DUTY?" I roar at them.

"TO SERVE THE GRANDMASTERS' WILL." I hear them roar back in response.

"WHAT IS THEIR WILL?"

"THAT WE FIGHT."

"WHAT DO WE FIGHT FOR?"

"THE GLORY OF THE DRAGONLORDS."

"We will move out into the city to start the purge in thirty minutes. That should be plenty of time to prepare yourselves." I announce and walk back towards the area where Lord Lannister is standing.

The Lord of Lannisport looks a bit pale and drained. The entire series of events must be getting to him. Weak Andals.

"You seem tired my lord, mayhaps a rest would help. As I announced to my men we will move into the city in thirty minutes and start the cleanup of the traitors." I inform the Lord.

"Are you sure you don't need the help of my men? The total number of the Faith Militant is expected to be around seven thousand within the city and you have less than a thousand men with you," he asks me.

I smile at him and replied, "We will be fine my lord, just keep your men on the walls to prevent any of the faith rabbles from escaping the city and order them to kill anyone that attempts to escape."

He sighs and replies, "If you say so. Good luck, Commander."

I laugh and reply, "My rank is Legate, my lord. We don't have a Commander rank."

"I assume it is the highest rank for your knights." He asks me nervously.

Poor man, he is nervous that the traitors are running amok in his city. They won't be after a short while.

"No, my lord. There are two more ranks above me." I reply to him.

"What? The King placed the Kingsguard under your command, are you saying that you outrank them despite not being the highest-ranked knight in among your knights?" He asks me with even more nervousness.

"I don't outrank them, my lord. The Kingsguards are the same rank as me in the hierarchy. The King could have chosen to place any five of us in command." I explain to him.

"Very well Legate, good luck in your hunt. I will pass orders to my men too." He wishes me luck and starts walking towards the castle.

**Six Hours Later**

We managed to sweep through the entire city and killed all the traitors wearing the faith colors. The last remaining of them have holed up in the Lannisport Sept and have fortified themselves inside. This included a sizeable sum of the Warrior Sons of the Lannisport chapter. We will have to mount a siege to draw them out. The men took turns maintaining watch on the sept with the help of Lannisport City Watch.

I suddenly heard a loud dragon roar and see the dragon Bluefyre land near our location.

Prince Viserys dismounts and walked towards us.

"It is not safe for you to be out here, your grace." I cautioned him.

"I heard that the remaining members of the Faith are holed up in the sept. It would take days to smoke them out unless you have a Dragon. Inform your men to move back from the sept. It is going to get very hot and messy in the general area here soon." He proclaimed and proceeded to mount his dragon.

I informed my men about unexpected help. After about ten minutes Prince Viserys started his attack on the sept.

The dragon took off and then proceeded to fly straight up into the sky. After it reached a height of about four hundred yards it started to dive. The diving dragon threw down a big piece of rubble it picked up from the nearby buildings. This piece of rubble hits the front gates of the fortified sept and destroyed everything in the general vicinity of the impact area. The dragon as it got closer started to breathe fire on the sept.

Within seconds the entire building was up in flames and parts of it were crumbling down. Those that attempted to escape were immediately shot by our arrows. We later found out that around ten of the commanding knights of the Warrior Sons including Ser Joffrey Doggett, the commander of Lannisport chapter, escaped by sea before the Lannisters could set up the blockade. The remaining members of the Faith Militant in the city were purged.

* * *

**Rhaegor Targaryen **

After Aenys' death, the King's Landing Warrior Sons chapter and the poor fellows in the city attempted to take the Red Keep. When they realized its futility they retreated to Rhaenys' Hill and started fortifying the Sept of Remembrance.

I honestly had no idea what their plan was. Even a young dragon, like Bluefyre, was able to bring down a fortified sept with no issues whatsoever. With two mature dragons that sept should crumble within a minute.

They, however, started questioning Maegor's right to rule and claimed that he was a usurper. It was a valid statement. So Maegor decided to face the problem head-on and pose an open challenge to anyone who questioned his right.

* * *

**Kings Landing - 43 AC – One week after Maegor's coronation**

We descended on the Visenya's Hill and dismounted from Vhagar and Balerion. The Templars had already formed a cordon around the area. There was a huge crowd gathered around them attempting to get in on the excitement.

We raised the Targaryen banners and Maegor set his challenge.

"You stand in front of Maegor of House Targaryen, the First of my Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Protector of the Realm and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Those who seek to challenge my right to rule as King put forth your challenge now, or forever hold your peace."

We had to wait only a few moments until our challenge was answered. Ser Damon Morrigen the Grand Commander of the Warrior Sons stepped forward and challenged us. The man was a good knight but nowhere near good enough to challenge Maegor.

"I demand a Trial of Seven to challenge your right as King", Ser Damon laid out his challenge.

This was an extremely fortunate turn of events. Not only we would get to fight all those who opposed Maegor in a single fight, we would be able to convince all the Faith fanatics that the Seven themselves saw us as their champions.

Five Templars from my bodyguard squad, Maegor and I were fighting as Maegor's champions. Ser Damon and six of his lackeys were fighting as the Faith's champions.

We had expected to fight and were fully armed and ready. It was the first time I used my full armor in actual melee combat. The only time I used it before was during the Vulture Hunt and back then I was fighting as a cavalry archer. I personally designed Maegor's and my armor based on Dark Souls games. I based our armor design on Dragonslayer Ornstein. I even had the dragon-shaped helm to complete the ensemble for our armor. Maegor's armor was black and red in the typical Targaryen colors and mine was black and silver representing my personal sigil. The expression on Leonna's face when she first saw me in full armor alone was worth the effort I spent into getting it made. Dragon riders wearing dragon slayer armor was ironic.

Our melee weapon was a double-bladed glaive, the 'Orthos', made out of hardened weirwood and black steel. It was a modular weapon I designed to be a polearm that could be split in the middle into two ax/sword hybrid weapons that were dual wieldable. It was the mandatory secondary armament for Templars. They were effective against knights in full plate and could be used against cavalry in their polearm form.

The Warrior Sons did not expect us to be prepared for the challenge and were taken aback when Maegor readily accepted the challenge and had six members fully armed and ready to fight for him. The sept grounds of a smaller and older sept built on Visenya's Hill was agreed as the location for our Trial. So the entire crowd soon moved there.

"Each one of us will take on one of them and end this farce as soon as possible. Leave Morrigen to me." Maegor gave his orders for the upcoming fight.

The septon offered a prayer and announced the start of the trial. I immediately charged towards a knight to the right of Ser Damon.

He swung his greatsword in a wide circular arc aimed at my neck to prevent me from getting closer. I dodged the blade by ducking quickly and closed the gap. I aimed a hit on his neck with my right blade, which he blocked with his gauntleted forearm. The blunt impact alone would have broken his bones and using the momentum I built up, I spun around and landed my left blade on his neck with enough force to break it. He collapsed immediately.

I looked around to see Maegor toying with Ser Damon who was disarmed and kneeling in front of him. Maegor seeing that I was done thrust his blade into Ser Damon's neck killing him. The other Templars were also cleaning up and once the last Warrior Son was dead the crowd around us erupted into a huge cheer for us.

The Warrior Sons retreated to the Sept of Remembrance on Rhaenys' Hill and the royal party marched across the streets to Aegon's Hill where the Red Castle and its Keep was built. Only the Keep's construction was complete, the overall Castle's construction was still going on. The streets were filled with cheer for us from the smallfolk and we eventually managed to reach the Red Keep.

Our next order of business was the Sept of Remembrance. The Templar forces were ready to siege the place but Maegor wanted to do what was done in Lannisport. Block their escape with our archers and then burn them alive. I watched as both Mother and Maegor took off on their dragons towards Rhaenys' Hill.

They returned after an hour announcing that every Warrior Son in King's Landing is dead and the Templars were ordered to round up the poor fellows in the city with orders to kill anyone who resisted.

* * *

**Two months later**

Though the Sixth Legion was operating according to standard protocols in Lannisport, it gave the remaining Faith Militant forces across the Westerlands a chance to flee. Two more Legions were sent to the Westerlands and they grouped up with the existing Templar and Westerlands forces. They swept across the countryside and towns looking for the remnants of the Faith Militant. They met some resistance with the remaining Warrior Sons spread around the kingdom but they were quickly dealt with. The situation in the Westerlands was brought under control very quickly as a preemptive strike at the heart of Westerlands Faith Militant nulled their ability to muster effectively in the Kingdom. So the traitor forces from both the Faith Militant and Lords supporting the Faith fled to the Reach and Riverlands.

We mustered the Templar forces as fast as possible and we chose the market town of Tumbleton as our staging point. The primary reason for this being that the town was at equal distance to the heart of all the four kingdoms involved in the Faith uprising. The town was connected to King's Landing through the dragon road network and the Templars already had a foothold there. Lord of Tumbleton, Jon Footly, was extremely grateful that his town was connected to the dragon road network. The effect of Templar propaganda there meant that the town and its surrounding regions had no Faith Militant presence. Lord Footly used this development as an opportunity to increase trade in the town.

The Crownlands had no Faith Militant activity as the propaganda war by the Templars was extremely effective. All the Lords declared on the loyalist side and their forces were sent to the Riverlands and Reach to reinforce the Templar forces in those two kingdoms

The Stormlands was similar to the Westerlands, the Lords that declared on the loyalist side were the majority. There were some Lords near the Reach border that declared on the side of the Faith. However, the traitor forces in the Stormlands on seeing that they wouldn't get much support from the Storm Lords fled to the Reach. The Storm Lords' forces pursued them and they linked up with the loyalist forces in the Reach at Ashford. Together they marched towards Cider Hall which was under siege by the traitor Lords of the Reach.

The Iron Islands went extra brutal and destroyed anything Faith related on the islands. Even septons and septas weren't spared. Septons were taken as thralls, and septas were taken as salt wives. They used the uprising as an opportunity to expel the Faith from their demesne. With them having to put down a Drowned God cult uprising recently, their action was not surprising. I wonder if I should explain to them that the Drowned God they worship is just a bastardized version of the Sea God, who was just a powerful sorcerer. It would be hilarious to see that reaction and I would probably get attacked by the fanatics.

In the Riverlands, we didn't get much support from the Riverlords other than Tullys, Harroways, Mootons, Blackwoods and a few other minor houses. The majority of the Riverlords remained neutral refusing to take a side, but we had some Lords take the side of the Faith in answer to the High Septon's call. However, forces from both the North and the Vale answered our call to put down the uprising in the Riverlands. Three Legions of Templars were allocated to the war in the Riverlands. The Faith Militant in the Riverlands alone had swelled up to about thirty thousand by the time they reached Riverrun. Including the traitor Lords, our opposition numbers were in the high forty thousand.

The North and Vale forces totaled around fifteen thousand. The Crownlands forces and Templars added another ten thousand to the loyalist side. The traitor forces almost doubled our numbers. I realized that a straight conflict would mean unnecessary losses to our side and decided to deploy Vhagar in the Riverlands. I joined Vhagar with two Templar Legions. Our target was castles and keeps of the traitor Lords in Riverlands and Westerlands. Mother wanted to burn down the castles and keeps in an attempt to force the traitor Lords back.

**Near Sunvale 43 AC - Four months later**

"Mother, I don't think destroying the castles and keeps is a good idea. If we destroy them, the Lords will not have anything to come back to and it would only harden their resolve to continue fighting against us." I explained my reasoning for not wanting to destroy the buildings.

She snorted and replied, "Rhaegor, they are fanatics, they will continue to fight against us till we make a point and show that our power is unassailable."

She does have a point, but burning down these buildings seems like a huge waste of resources that could be used by us.

"I concede to your argument, I suggest a middle ground. Let's take out the fortifications, of these castles and keeps, with Vhagar and have the Templars clean up the rest. We can execute the traitors defending and take the women and children as prisoners and hostages. That way the traitor Lords will have a reason to surrender." I proposed a new idea.

She thought about it for a while and responded, "I have to agree with you there, hostages would ensure a higher chance of the traitors defecting from the main army and surrendering. How do you plan on dealing with the hostages? We don't have men to keep them suppressed."

That is a valid point. We need more manpower and somewhere to hold the prisoners and hostages. I have the perfect place for the location.

"I suggest we move them to Harrenhal. The castle is big enough to serve as a prison for the entirety of the traitor forces and I can get support Templars from the Crownlands to watch over them." I explained my thoughts.

"Alright then make preparations for the Templars to hold the prisoners and hostages at Harrenhal. We will start our castle raids tomorrow," she commanded.

"By the time the first batch of prisoners and hostages reach Harrenhal, the Templars should be ready there," I replied.

I think I just doubled my workload with my plan. I start writing details of Templar deployment to Harrenhal. Once I send it to Rhaena she should be able to take care of the actual process.

**The next day**

We started our march early and made it to our target in a good time. Our first target was House Falwell of Sunvale. Lord Rupert Falwell was the leader of the traitor Lords in the Riverlands Faith Militant army. The castle was a decently sized one according to Westerosi standards.

We sent a messenger to the castle asking them to surrender or face judgment as traitors. As expected the result was negative.

Mother took off on Vhagar and blew up all their siege defenses set up on the walls of the castle and finally, she blew up the gates and doors.

"TEMPLARS, MARCH."

I gave the command to the Templars and we waltzed into the now defenseless castle.

"KILL ANYONE WHO RESISTS, NO HARM SHALL BEFALL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN." I gave my second command as we started engaging the defenders in the castle.

We killed off the archers in the castle first and then started working on the men at arms. Within an hour we were able to wipe out the last remaining resistance inside the castle.

Lady Elena Falwell, and her ladies in waiting surrendered after we cleaned up on the men.

"If you had surrendered when I first offered terms we could have avoided all this unnecessary death on your side, my lady. Men take them as prisoners." I chided her and commanded the Templars.

"I'm a noble lady and I demand to be treated like someone worthy of my station," she responded to my orders in outrage.

I started laughing hard and eventually, I managed to control myself.

"Elena, in the name of King Maegor Targaryen, hereby you are stripped of your lands and titles for the crime of treason." I proclaimed my judgment and watched her pretty face contorted in horror.

You are not nobility anymore just a mere commoner among the sea of smallfolk in this land. My men eventually got them all in chains and they started the prisoner transport to Harrenhal.

We followed a similar pattern across the castles and keeps all the traitor Lords and Landed Knights. We hoped the idiots would see sense and surrender but instead the entire Faith Militant army of the Riverlands decided to march upon Riverrun, the second most fortified castle of the Riverlands. You really can't cure stupidity.

**Riverrun 43 AC – Two months later**

The Battle of Riverrun was the second full-scale battle in the faith uprising. The traitor forces marched towards Riverrun from Wayfarer's Rest, located at the border of Riverlands and Westerlands. After intercepting a few of their scout messages were sure that they were unaware of Vhagar's presence at Riverrun. They assumed that the dragon was still burning castles and keeps in the countryside. This worked out perfectly for us as the bait was set.

I met up with the commanders of the forces at Riverrun to change our strategy based on this new intel. Lord Edmyn Tully, Lord Wylis Bolton, Lord Alard Royce, Lord Jon Hogg, Templar Master Cadder and mother are the ones I called for this strategy meeting.

"Mother, Master Cadder and my loyal Lords, I have received very interesting news that could be used to turn the tide of the upcoming battle decisively in our favor," I announced to the group gathered.

I continued, "The traitor forces are not aware of the presence of mother and Vhagar and they fully intend to commit to the attack on Riverrun. After taking the castle-"

Lord Tully let out a loud snort interrupting me and scoffed, "Riverrun will not be taken so easily. This castle might not stand against dragons but against a land-based force, it would take months for an attacking force to mount a proper siege. They can't be that stupid to assume that the dragon that has been plaguing their homes would let them set up a siege. Can they?"

He is correct, but he doesn't have the full info that he would have gotten if he hadn't interrupted me.

"What if the castle gates were opened to the attackers?" I asked him.

"What? Why would we do that?" He responded with another question.

"You have traitors in the castle garrison Lord Tully, who intend to open the gates when the attackers approach the walls," I replied in a deadpan.

"My men are loyal to me. They would never do something so dishonorable like that." He replied defensively.

Why does stuff like honor prevent these people from thinking rationally, I can never understand.

Lord Bolton scoffed in response, "Lord Tully you are not just fighting other Lords, you are fighting the Faith Militant. How many members of your garrison are pious men? Probably a lot. All it takes is one of them to decide that you are in the wrong and we will have a traitor that believes he is taking the right action by betraying you."

"Your Grace, I assume you have tracked down these traitors?" Lord Royce asked me.

"Yes Lord Royce, and I had them send messages to the traitors to indicate that everything is going to work out just the way the traitors planned," I replied to his question and continued. "Riverrun offers us a unique advantage. The invading force will be funneled into the land between Tumblestone and Red Fork rivers."

I laid down the map on the table and explained the details of the new strategy to the commanders.

**Battle of Riverrun**

My forces are ready in their positions. Since I don't have to lead the Templar forces when a Master is present I decided to enjoy the battle from the back of Vhagar. Mother and I hid with Vhagar in the Whispering Woods waiting for our signal.

The plan was simple. The North forces will be on the far banks of the Tumblestone river and the Vale forces will be on the far side of the Red Fork river. The Templars will join the Riverrun garrison and man the walls as archers. The Riverlands and Crownlands cavalry would support the North and Vale. The infantry were placed inside the inner walls of the castle.

Once the attack begins we will fly over the traitor forces and start burning them from their backlines. This would mean the only way for them to escape would be to kill Vhagar or run in the opposite direction where they will be funneled into the castle. The outer gates will be partially opened in a way that they will trickle in small numbers to the outer plaza of the castle. This will be the kill zone for the archers. The traitors will lay down their arms and surrender or they will be killed by arrow fire. The forces on the far banks of the rivers will prevent escape in that direction.

Mother and I hear the sound of the war horn that indicates the arrival of the traitor forces. Vhagar took flight and we start our part of the plan. I had my bow with me just in case I got bored.

During our flyby, I noticed the leader of the force, Lord Rupert Falwell. I didn't waste time and shot an arrow towards him, it was a perfect shot right into his helm's eyehole. I followed with three more shots to the other knights I assumed were commanders in the traitor forces. That was all the damage I could do to the enemy command chain as we flew over them towards the backlines.

Vhagar started lighting up the backlines and forced the enemy army to run towards the rivers and the castle. After about an hour of fighting, we managed to eliminate eighty percent of the traitor forces. Most of them were killed but some of them managed to escape while the remaining surrendered. Thus the Battle of Riverrun was won by the loyalist forces.

We still had around ten thousand of the traitors who surrendered and nearly half of them were women. The poor fellows allowed women to fight among their ranks and the initial number before the battle was nearly seven thousand women. The men who surrendered were expecting the chance to go to the Wall. I would have spared them if they had not decided to march on Riverrun. Maegor already set a precedent that traitors to the realm will not be allowed to serve in the Wall when he dealt with the Vale issue, and I saw no reason to argue against that. They were all executed. The women who surrendered were all taken as prisoners to Harrenhal.

After the Battle of Riverrun, I ordered the three Templar Legions to remain in the Riverlands to assist Lord Tully with the cleanup. The forces of North and Vale went back to their respective kingdoms now that their work in the Riverlands was done.

* * *

**Stonebridge 43 AC **

**One week after the Battle of Riverrun**

Reach was the most antagonistic kingdom towards the royal family during this rebellion. The Great Houses and the ancient Houses remained neutral. Hightowers were the only major House in the Reach that declared for the Faith. A significant portion of the lesser Lords also declared on the side of the Faith. Our major support within the Reach came from the Dornish Marches and the far west regions closer to King's Landing. I expected the Tyrells to declare on the loyalist side but those fucking traitors chose to remain neutral and let the conflict escalate.

The traitor Lords' forces in the reach were roughly around twenty-five thousand strong. However, the biggest problem for the loyalist side was the number of Faith Militant forces in the Reach. The preemptive actions in Westerlands and Stormlands drove most of the Faith Militant forces in those kingdoms to link up with the Reach's Faith Militant. As a result, the Faith Militant in the Reach swelled up to roughly around sixty thousand strong.

While I was capturing castles and keeps of traitors in the Riverlands. Maegor took Balerion and joined the loyalist Storm Lords and Reach Lords at Cider Hall relieving the siege there. He decimated the enemy forces with his dragon and loyalist forces completed the rout. The Battle of Cider Hall was the first full-scale engagement of the Faith Militant uprising.

While they were restoring order to Cider Hall and its surrounding lands, Maegor received news that the remaining traitor forces in the Reach were attempting to make their move after their disastrous failure in Cider Hall. The Faith militant force numbering around sixty-five thousand were marching up from Highgarden towards Tumbleton.

Upon hearing the news about the traitor army's march, Maegor decided to use the choke point of Stonebridge as our field of battle. The excess loyalist forces from Cider Hall all marched northeast to Stonebridge to setup up our defenses there. The Templar and Crownlands forces from Tumbleton joined Maegor at Stonebridge. The combined loyalist forces at Stonebridge was thirty thousand strong. This included twelve Templar Legions, five thousand Reach Lords' forces that declared on the loyalist side, five thousand Storm Lords' forces and eight thousand Crownlands' forces.

Taking our dragons into account we could have met the Faith Militant forces in open field and still won a decisive victory. Maegor decided to not deploy dragons for this battle. His experience at Cider Hall made him reconsider using dragon fire in rich farmlands. The lands around Stonebridge were all rich farmlands and dragon fire might end up becoming an uncontrollable blaze that destroys the entire region's crops.

Stonebridge is a river crossing town named after the humongous bridge that is used to cross the Mander river. The western side of the town was residential and market districts. The eastern side was fully walled with the town's castle located close to the eastern bank of the bridge. The eastern side could only be reached through the bridge. All other entry points were sealed. The bridge would give us the perfect location to funnel in the enemy troops.

Maegor already destroyed most of the forces belonging to the traitor Lords when he relieved the siege of Cider Hall so the number of forces well equipped on the traitors' side was roughly around eight to nine thousand. A week after the Battle of Riverrun ended, the Faith Militant forces reached Stonebridge. Mother and I flew back on Vhagar to provide help to Maegor. Since dragon fire was not an option I convinced mother and Maegor to use rock bombardment instead, as I didn't want to waste our aerial dragon superiority.

Dragons are capable of carrying large rocks and aerial bombardment with rocks is a thing no one thought of. When I initially explained my idea to mother and father way back when I was young and stupid, they were both amused as just using dragon fire would make any fight infinitely easier. I did manage to convince them that the rock strategy could be used by younger dragons whose flames aren't strong enough to blast through defenses. From Templar reports on the Lannisport Purge, I knew that Viserys used rock throw strategy perfectly during the siege of the sept.

With mature dragons, I had another trick up my sleeve. Rocks super-heated by dragon fire shattered on impact to the ground when they were dropped with enough force. This, in essence, would be the medieval equivalent of frag grenades. All the dragons had to do was to drop rocks after heating them with dragon fire.

Maegor's plan was similar to the tactics I used back in the Vulture Hunt. He planned to deploy four Legions of Templars as cavalry archers that would herd the bulk of the traitor forces towards the bridge. There they would be funneled into the kill zone area of the remaining Templar forces that would be stationed on the town walls. Wall-mounted scorpions and archers would ensure that the traitor forces wouldn't last long once they enter the kill zone.

Finding rocks big enough to create an actual impact was not an issue. There were several rock formations nearby that was used in the first place to build Stonebridge's bridge, castle, and walls. Maegor had the rocks prepared by the time Vhagar arrived at Stonebridge. We had everything ready for the third big battle of the Faith uprising, 'The Battle of Stonebridge'.

By this time the news of our executions of all men involved in the uprising had been spread. News of our practice of sparing women and taking them as prisoners was also spread. So I expected the men among the traitors to fight till death and the women to surrender when they realize that the fight is going south for them.

In all honesty, it blew my mind that the fanatics would be suicidal enough to run headfirst into two mature dragons. My Templars are fanatics but I made sure common sense is a trait that they absolutely need to possess.

**Battle of Stonebridge**

The battle started with the vanguard of the traitor forces marching up to the outskirts of the town. I was leading the cavalry archer units and I heard the signal for Phase one of Maegor's strategy.

The war horns blew the previously practiced signal and I immediately ordered my unit to charge towards the right flank of the Faith forces. Our primary role was to strike on the right flank of the bulk of enemy forces and make them converge in the middle. Master Lucas was leading a force similar to mine on the left flank and was forcing our enemies to converge into the middle from the opposite side.

The cavalry archers from our two units started their arrow bombardment and I could see the enemy flanks shore up their defenses by converging in the middle and forming shield walls.

After a few minutes of arrow bombardment, I heard the war horns blowing the signal for Maegor's phase two. I immediately ordered my men to fall back and maintain formation. This was going to get messy.

As soon as the sound of the war horns stopped, the roar of the two dragons emerged with Balerion and Vhagar flying up from the castle and they proceeded to bombard the tightly converged shield wall with exploding rocks towards their rear lines. The rocks worked perfectly and blew up their formation.

This had the effect I wanted but also an undesired effect. Most of the traitor forces tried to escape the bombardment by running towards the walls of the town. However, some of them realized that they were being herded, broke formation and tried to flee.

I had to let them escape, as there were more men to kill right in front of me. The bulk of their forces reached the bridge of Stonebridge. Their vanguard forces were attempting to scale the walls and were getting shot down by the archers. We maintained formation and killed anyone who tried to escape in our general direction.

The sound for Maegor's phase four sounded next. Huh? I did not hear phase three's signal. Did the women already surrender? Well, I guess it is time for us to take action again.

The cavalry archers on either side converged towards the rear lines of the enemy forces while still maintaining cover on the flanks. The heavy infantry that was placed inside the town walls was also called into action and they were cutting down the enemy forces that were attempting to rush across the bridge.

After we had fully surrounded the enemy forces the signal for phase five was sounded.

The Templar archers had their targets in their kill zone and it was time to end the battle. The heavy infantry line prevented the traitors from crossing the bridge and the cavalry archers prevented retreat. The two roaring dragons in the sky occasionally dropping exploding rocks and the hail of arrow fire finally broke them. They realized the futility of their efforts and gave up in despair. The men, however, knew that death was waiting for them irrespective of their decision and decided to fight on.

The Templar archers and cavalry archers eventually ran out of arrows and had to engage them in melee. Since the majority of the forces wore leather and cloth, the Templars rampaged through whoever was still putting up any form of resistance. Blood flowed through the streets of Stonebridge and into the Mander river towards the end of the battle. Over twelve thousand women among the poor fellows surrendered and were taken as prisoners to be transported to Harrenhal. The traitor Lords and their men were all executed for treason. Maegor carried out the sentence for the Lords himself while the Templars carried out the sentence for the remaining men.

With the Battle of Stonebridge, the Faith Militant forces were completely defeated and scattered. Around ten thousand of the traitor forces managed to escape from the battlefield but we planned to sweep through the entire kingdom to root out any remaining pockets of the Faith Militant. First, we planned to march towards Oldtown to put an end to all this madness.

**Oldtown 43 AC**

**Two months after the Battle of Stonebridge**

By the time we reached Oldtown the total number of prisoners, we had taken from the castles and defeated poor fellows exceeded twenty five thousand. Harrenhal was already hosting the prisoners from the Riverlands and Westerlands which amounted to be around twenty thousand. There was a chance that the castle would become overwhelmed by that number so we decided to ship them to the prison camps in Acropolis.

When I was the Hand of the King, I allowed Maegor and Rhaena to make Templar decisions on their own if they both agreed and only come to me in case of a disagreement. The prison camp system was one such decision made without my knowledge. The camps were set up for death row female prisoners on the outskirts of Acropolis.

* * *

**Flashback 41 AC**

**Dragonstone**

I decided to take a month off from my duties as the Hand and return to Dragonstone. The construction of the dragon roads was progressing smoothly and the assimilation of the Crownlands' populace to the Templar dogma was also progressing rapidly.

I needed a vacation and I informed Aenys that I would be in Dragonstone for a month to spend time with my wives and children. It also gave me a chance to catch up on the Templar administration work that I missed.

I walked towards Rhaena's tower. I hoped to surprise her with my visit. I asked the servants for her location and found out that she was in the library.

I walked towards the library and found the door open. I stealthily peeked inside to see her facing the opposite side of the door and looking for something on one of the bookshelves. I silently entered the room and crept behind her and pulled her into my embrace.

She let out a loud yelp of panic and relaxed once she noticed that it was me.

"When did you come back?" she asked me.

I pull her closer and nuzzled against the back of her neck.

"Earlier today on a ship to Acropolis. I just got back to the castle." I replied as I start fondling her breasts.

She lets out a soft moan and leans back into me. I find her nipples and give them a light squeeze which gets a louder moan out of her.

"Stop, the door is still open and servants might hear us." She feebly tried to protest.

"Then I guess we will have to be quiet," I reply and move one of my hands towards her nether regions.

She covered her mouth with one of her hands as she let out another loud moan muffled by her hand. I start stroking her cunt, gently flicking her clit. She starts grinding into me as she gets stimulated more and more.

"So what were you looking for in the library?" I ask her as I insert a finger into her cunt and start fingering her.

"Books magic." It is all she managed to blurt out before closing her mouth again to prevent her loud moans from being heard outside the library.

She reached her climax pretty soon and fell limp panting. I carried her in my arms and sat down in one of the lounging chairs nearby. We shared a passionate kiss as she freed my erect cock from my breeches. I pulled her closer and aligned it with her cunt and plunged it into her. After a few minutes of intense fucking, we both reached our climaxes and collapsed into the lounge chair.

"Earlier when I was in Acropolis, I noticed new construction. What is going on?" I asked her as I stroked her hair while she snuggled on my lap using my shoulders as pillows.

"The Strategist and Arcanist are attempting a new method in dealing with women on death row. The new construction is to facilitate that." She replied while rubbing my chest gently.

Please don't tell me that you are building death camps.

"What is it for?" I asked her nervously.

"The Arcanist submitted a report earlier last year which showed that the children of Templars do not need sacrifices to unlock their bloodline. Just training is enough and if they can even activate their bloodlines if they have someone to help them." She started her explanation.

Yes, I read that report too. It is pretty fucking awesome that in a few generations every Templar would reach the active blood state.

"So what does that have to do with the women on death row."

"The death row women who are fertile and are in childbearing age are assigned to an enhanced Templar who doesn't have a partner. Their role is to keep bearing children for that Templar till they die." She replied nonchalantly.

What the fucking fuck? This sounds like I have been transported into some weird hentai doujin.

"The women agreed to this?" I asked with a surprised tone.

"They eventually did." She casually replied as she starts nuzzling my neck.

I don't like the sound of this at all. I pull her close to me and start rubbing her back.

"What do you mean?"

"Leonna provided us a new medicine that makes the prisoners pliable to suggestions and when used regularly we can make them completely loyal and subservient. It takes about three to four months of constant use of this medicine together with indoctrination. They would be changed into the perfect mothers to take care of the children they bear for our Templars. After they bear the fifth child they will be allowed to integrate with the rest of Acropolis." She replied settling into the cuddle.

Leonna is okay with this? Drug-induced brainwashing to create loyal minions entirely used for breeding purposes. I'm sure there is a hentai plot for this somewhere back on Earth.

"Isn't this just slavery? We are enslaving them forcibly to do our bidding," I asked her

Rhaena scoffed, "Their life was already forfeit. Killing them directly would be such a waste. They are just resources for us to use and if they bear five healthy children they are given the chance to go live as free women. We are being benevolent by letting them serve us."

She does have a valid point. At that point, they would be considered as resources like cattle or horses.

"How many women do we have right now under this plan," I asked with my curiosity taking over.

"Right now we have about five hundred women in total and two hundred of them have been fully subsumed and are with child," she replied.

Wait, the numbers don't add up.

"There should have been way more women on death row from all over the Crownlands if the plan was started last year," I explained my observation

She scoffed back at me saying, "Not every woman gets the opportunity to participate. They must be without any disease or sickness, be desirable enough for our men and must be less than thirty namedays old."

Hah, so the ugly prisoners are sacrificed directly. This entire project is really weird.

"We are essentially using them as broodmares," I stated.

"Correct, they will be excellent broodmares for our new Templar children," she replied excitedly.

The next generation Templars are going to be a super-soldier army. This entire process seems too good to be true.

"Does the medicine used, have any adverse effects on them?" I asked about the potential side effects

"Physically no. Just makes them docile and obedient. So they won't be useful to us in combat." She explained the downside of the brainwashing process.

That medicine is the Holy Grail for the slavers of Essos. The bright side is, Leonna developed it and I'm sure she wouldn't leave around the method for it to be replicated easily.

* * *

**End of Flashback – Back to present**

**Oldtown 43 AC**

We were expecting stiff resistance at Oldtown but to our surprise when were reached the city gates were open and there was no Faith Militant insight. We were greeted by Ceryse herself who was waiting for us at the city gates with her nephew Addam.

Maegor landed and immediately rushed towards her pulling her into his embrace and getting high pitched yelp out of her. Well, there was no need to play the charade with the Faith anymore and they were separated for nearly three years. There was a loud cheer from men on both sides.

Mother landed Vhagar and I dismounted. I walked towards them and cleared my throat to bring the two lovebirds back to their senses as they were in the middle of a long kiss.

"Fuck off," Maegor responded to me with a scowl after Ceryse broke their kiss and she was blushing furiously in embarrassment.

"Control yourself, Your Grace. We still have a fucking war to end." I replied to him and turned to face Ceryse.

"My Queen, what the fuck happened here?" I asked Ceryse in bewilderment.

"All in good time, goodbrother. Let's get you all settled in." She replied with a chuckle while signaling her men to carry out stuff to the Hightower I guess.

"This is an interesting turn of events," mother who had reached us said with a chuckle as she pulled Ceryse into a hug.

* * *

**Dragonstone Acropolis 48 AC – Two hours after Maegor's funeral**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

We all dismounted from our dragons and walked towards the ship on the harbor. The children were excited to finally set off to meet their half-brother and half-sister. We reached the ship after a few minutes of walking and saw cousin Alys discussing something with men on the ship. She must be excited to finally see Leoric after three years of separation. I'm still a bit miffed that she knew about them being alive and I didn't.

Rhaegor stops just before the gangplank and turns towards the children.

"Do you remember the plan?" he asked them for the second time since Maegor's funeral.

"Papa, I don't think the plan changed or we would have forgotten about it within the last hour," Aurea responded to him with a deadpan inciting a chuckle from him.

He pulled Aurea into a hug and replied, "I'm going to miss you all dearly."

He beckoned the children towards him and they all joined him in a group hug. He let them go after a few moments.

"Remember, the dragons fly in rotating box formation around the fleet and any non-Templar ship they spot should be destroyed with no survivors left. Aurea, you are in command, if we fail at this, there is a chance our safe haven might be lost." He commanded them with a serious face.

Alys walked towards us and helped Aurea and Rhea to get on the ship.

"Don't worry father no ship will see us and live to tell the tale till we reach the Summer Isles," Samael responded with a devilish grin.

"Be careful and don't give Aunt Leonna too much trouble when you get there. She is scarier than me when angry. So consider this a warning." I added with a chuckle.

I immediately see Sammy's face pale and he nods furiously. I pulled the children into a hug and kissed their foreheads. They boarded the ship and Master Roland approached us.

"Grandmasters, rest assured they are in safe hands and I will make sure that no harm befalls them to my best abilities." He proclaimed to us.

"Thank you, Master Roland," I replied to him.

"If everything goes smoothly, I should be seeing you again soon. Smooth sailing Master." Rhaegor replied to him.

"I will take my leave, glory to the dragon lords!" He saluted and boarded the ship.

Alys looked at me and smirked, "Rhaena, did you manage to find a corpse for my size?" Seeing me nod she continued, "Gods, I finally am free of my father nagging at me to get married."

I pulled her into a hug and told her, "Make sure the kids stay out of trouble during the trip."

She hugged Rhaegor next as he said, "Be careful Alys, and don't let Leoric do anything stupid till we get there."

"Don't worry uncle, preventing Visy and Leo from doing being stupid was what most of Arty's and my childhood was spent on." She responded to him with a chuckle and proceeded to board the ship.

We stand on the dock as we watch the fleet left the harbor on their journey towards the Summer Isles. The children's dragons soon take off after the ships.

Rhaegor is right. We will be meeting up with them soon. I hope his crazy plan to purge his body of the poison works.

"We still have our role to play to complete our plan." Rhaegor reminded me from my side.

I gave him a nod and we started walking towards our dragons.

"Where did you get the corpses?" He asked me.

"With a city as big as Dragonsurf there was no need to look for anywhere else," I responded to his question.

"Indeed, I'm not surprised that the city had devolved into such a state with not having enough Templars in the City Watch." He responded with a chuckle.

"Nothing much we can do about it. We need to maintain control over the Stepstones and keep Acropolis functioning." I replied as we come within sight range of the dragons.

"I'm really interested in what Jaehaerys' reaction would be when we explain about the Entity to him." Rhaegor pondered loudly with a chuckle.

"We will be allocating two Templar Legions under him and give full control of the Silver Hand to Alysanne. Unless they intentionally go and search for a fight with the Entity they should be fine. This is considering that the Entity did so much to have Jaehaerys ascend the throne." I replied to his comment.

"True, but the real reaction I'm looking for is when I let him know that Rogar is not trying to amass power but trying to protect him." He responded with another chuckle.

"Honestly, I was surprised that Rogar was involved in your stupid trap. He always seemed to be the one with more sense in your group. Guess I was wrong." I responded to him with a smirk.

"Hey, it is not my fault that my idiot brother decided to hold a duel to bring out the assassins into the open. It seemed like a great idea at that time, show our true power and stamp out any rebellious thoughts from the Lords of the realm. I forgot a saying in my previous life. There is always a bigger fish in the sea." He replied with a sigh.

How very true indeed. The question remains, are our preparations enough to defeat that bigger fish.

* * *

**Later that night**

**Jaehaerys Targaryen**

I am awoken by the sound of someone knocking on my door. I see my sister still sleeping by my side and get out of the bed to open the door. I see Lord Commander, Ser Raymont Baratheon, with a panicked face when I open the door.

"What is the matter, Ser Raymont?" I ask him.

"Your Grace, there has been a fire and talk of assassins among the castle guard. I came by to make sure you and Princess Alysanne are safe." He responds to my question.

Fire? Assassins? Are they going after Rhaegor?

"Lord Commander, find out what exactly is going on. I don't want to be kept in the dark." I order him.

"At once, Your Grace. We would prefer if you had the Kingsguard with you till we sort out this crisis."

There is a chance that I'm the target.

"What is going on?" I hear Alysanne who seemed just woken up.

"That would be prudent, Lord Commander," I reply to Ser Raymont and turned to face my darling sister.

Ser Olyvar and Ser Alyn walk into the room and take their position by the door and window of the room.

"There has been a fire, sister. I believe it is the work of an assassin using it as a distraction." I reply to Alysanne as I sit beside her.

"Are they after us?" she asks me with a startled expression.

"I don't think so. They might be the ones Rhaegor mentioned earlier. If that is the case I think he might be the target." I explain my thoughts.

We suddenly hear an explosion coming from Rhaena's tower. I rushed to the window to see what was going on and see green flames on one of the floors of Rhaena's tower.

NO NO NO…

That is very close to her children's chambers. Are they the target? Her sons have a better claim to the throne than me but she had already given up her claims to the throne. So it makes no sense for the assassins to target them.

I turned around to see Alysanne looking horrified at the prospect of our nephews and nieces being the target of the assassination. We can't do much at this point and we wait for the return of Ser Raymont with more information. Gods, I hope the children are safe.

Thirty minutes later we hear a knock on our door. Ser Olyvar opened it to let Ser Raymont in. He looks haggard and exhausted with soot covering his armor.

"What is going on Lord Commander?" I ask him.

"This was an assassination plot on Prince Rhaegor's children and they succeeded. Sera Alys Velaryon attempted to stop the assassins and it appears that she too was caught in the fire along with the assassins. The children, Sera Alys and the assassins are dead, all burnt alive." He responds with a pained expression.

I rush towards the door in an attempt to get to Rhaena and was blocked by the Lord Commander.

"Your Grace, we don't know if there are more assassins left. It is not safe to leave now." He chides me.

"I don't fucking care. It is your job to protect me and do it if there are more assassins. I'm going to see my nephews, nieces, and cousin." I roar in anger towards him and start running towards Rhaena's tower with Alysanne close in tow behind me.

This is a fucking disaster. Dragonstone is the perfect fortress and no one can enter without permission. Which means the assassins were hidden within my group. I delivered the assassins myself to my sister's doorstep. I reach the tower and the smell of burnt flesh reaches my nose. I ascend the flights of stairs to see Rhaegor comforting Rhaena and the bodies of their children burnt beyond recognition in front of them.

I stand there paralyzed by the scene in front of me. This is all my fault. If I hadn't chosen to rebel they wouldn't have killed Maegor and now they killed my sister's children too. I feel Alysanne grab my hand and squeeze it reassuringly.

"Rhaena, I'm sorry." I blurt out involuntarily.

She turns to face me and I see her eyes red with tears falling down her face. She rushes towards us and pulls us both into a hug.

I stroke her back and pull myself out of the hug.

"Did you find out who is responsible for this act?" I ask Rhaegor.

He glares at me, I could feel his rage trying to smother me. I have never felt so insignificant in my life.

"Follow me." That is all he says and starts walking towards a nearby room.

I followed him and when I entered the room I found a couple of men bound and gagged on the floor.

"They are the only ones alive left. The rest all died in the wildfire explosion when Alys tried to stop them." He explains what happened.

He bent down and pulled one of the men up and removed his gag.

After a quick punch to his gut, Rhaegor asked him, "Who sent you?"

The man groans in pain and then replies, "Sealord of Braavos, Prince of Pentos and Archons of Tyrosh and Lys. They hired us to disrupt Prince Rhaegor's operations in the Stepstones. We decided to kill his family and steal dragon eggs if possible. If we succeeded we would have caused enough chaos in Dragonstone and we would have used the chance to retake control over the Stepstones."

The man explained his motives with a monotonous drone. I feel rage takes over me. How dare they? My sister's children will be avenged.

"Jaehaerys, take Rhaena with you to your chambers. I need to sort out everything here." Rhaegor orders me and proceeds to kill the assassins with his blade decapitating them both with a single swing.

He is correct I need to get Rhaena out of this tower. I go back to Alysanne and see Rhaena sobbing over her shoulder. Revenge can wait, right now, Rhaena needs me more.

"Rhaena, come with us, let Rhaegor sort this out," I ask my elder sister.

She stops her sobbing and glares at me. At that moment I realized that I could feel even more insignificant. I feel losing control of my body and I barely manage to remain standing.

"I'm so sorry Jae. I lost control. I didn't mean to hurt you." She apologized while pulling me into a hug and continued, "You are right, my children, my babies.."

She starts sobbing again and her speech gets incoherent. Alysanne and I with the help of the Kingsguard manage to get her to our chambers. She had to drink some dreamwine before sleep eventually claimed her.

I explain the motives of the assassins to Alysanne and as expected, she is horrified. From Rhaegor and Rhaena's reactions, at best, today's events would result in a war with the free cities. At worst, it would be the annihilation of the four free cities and personally, I would like to join them to burn down the free cities.

* * *

x-x-x-x-x

_**Still looking for Beta Readers. Please send a PM if interested.**_


	14. Interlude - Bolton and Tyrell

_**To the readers that complained about the flashbacks, I like non-linear timelines and will continue to use them. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience.**_

* * *

**Riverrun 43 AC – Before the Battle of Riverrun.**

**Wylis Bolton**

Ten years ago when Lord Brandon heir of House Stark invited me to Winterfell I was a bit vary. Boltons and not the most friendly bannermen of House Stark, but we were the most powerful and that was respected. Being the heir of House Bolton I assumed that the Starks wanted to show off their power after the end of the Royal progress.

However, I was never so glad to have made the wrong assumption. I was not the only one invited, Lords and heirs from all the major houses of the North were invited too. It was right then, the gathering laid the foundation for the formation of the Northern Knights.

Men from all over the North were invited to join the Knights. The men of the North who left for Essos after being disgruntled for kneeling to the Targaryens were also invited. They were hesitant initially but after several rounds of discussion, they sailed back to the North. It was paramount that the First Men stayed united for this endeavor to succeed. I was made commander along with Lord Stark's younger brother.

What really intrigued me was how the Starks had managed to exert their influence in the kingdom of Vale. It was frightening to see the Kings of Winter show ruthlessness in the battlefield of politics as well. The kingdom with the second most Andal influence in Westeros was the Vale. It now is almost completely turned into a kingdom ruled by First Men tradition.

It all started with Jonos Arryn's rebellion. Lady Anya Stark played her role perfectly and successfully incited her husband's brother to rebel. The death of Lord Ronnel Arryn was an unexpected outcome but it gave Lady Anya complete control over House Arryn. The changes she made were subtle and with House Royce backing her, she was able to start subverting the Lords of Vale towards worshipping the Old Gods. The Faith Militant's actions gave her the final push needed to completely subvert most of the Vale Lords.

The Targaryens didn't seem to care as long as we remained loyal to them. Why would they? The Faith was condemning them, and we were removing the Faith's presence from an entire Kingdom. It turned into a victory for both the Targaryens and us.

Every time the Faith attempts to do something they provide us with another opportunity. The Uprising had provided us with a perfect opportunity to attempt and gain a foothold in the Riverlands. Though this one would be difficult. My role in this campaign is twofold. The first is to assess the performance of the Northern Knights. The second is to try making a marriage alliance with a prominent Andal house within the Riverlands for my youngest sister. Among the loyalist Houses, House Mooton seems like the best option for an alliance.

Prince Rhaegor's strategy is a sound one and would let us completely surround the Faith forces and kill them all without impunity. However, he had requested that we spare the women if they yield. Getting to kill the men is still a victory and an excellent test for my men.

I rode in from of them on my steed and started to address them,

"Knights of the North, long have we waited for a chance. They came upon these lands, destroyed our homes, raped our women, besmirched our way of life, burnt our holy trees and tried to destroy our faith. The southrons yielded and whored themselves to the Andal scum.

I paused for a moment and the men gave a loud warcry. I continued,

"The North did not yield, we fought back, we spilled the blood of the rapists, we spilled the blood of the pillagers, and we took the fight to their home burning their castles and towns to the ground. Thousands of years have passed and they may have forgotten what we are truly made up of but the NORTH REMEMBERS!"

The men let out a deafening cheer and I paused again. After they calmed down a bit I continued,

"It is again time to sow the seeds of fear into the hearts of the Andals. Follow me, and the glory of victory shall be yours. We shall cleanse ourselves in the blood of our enemy. We shall bring the souls of those who stand before us as sacrifices to satiate the thirst of this land. We shall give bloody praise to the Gods whose existence they mocked."

They cheered louder than before and I started our battle chant,

"BLOOD FOR THE OLD GODS."

"SOULS FOR THE HOLY TREES."

They responded in unison,

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

The Northern Knights were ready for our first real challenge. We hoped the Faith would provide us that challenge.

As expected, the fanatical Faith Militant did not see the trap set by Prince Rhaegor and kept charging forward. The traitor Lords' bannermen saw through the ploy and tried to flee towards the rivers straight towards us.

* * *

**Traitor Knight POV.**

Gods, this was going to end up being a slaughter. Vhagar was supposed to be burning up the castles and keeps on the countryside of Westerlands, not defending Riverlands. They knew we were coming, they even knew we would come during the night. The path of retreat has already been cut off with the dragon's flames lighting up the night sky. Having no intention of letting my men become victims of another Field of Fire, I thought fast for a way to escape this nightmare.

I see my men panic and start to break formation, I yelled out to them, "Men if we move forward or backward we are going to be burnt alive by that dragon. I don't plan on dying here tonight. The river is shallow, once we make it to the other side, we will be safe. Follow me."

The relieved men follow me as we attempt to cross the Tumblestone. Thank Gods the water is not deep enough to drown us. As we neared the far bank, I heard chanting. I squinted to see silhouettes of men and horses. This was the enemy cavalry. Fighting them was the only way out for us.

Turning around to my men, I shouted, "Those horsemen stand between our life and death. Let's go kill them all in the name of the Seven."

My men let out a loud cheer and energetically prepare themselves to face the enemy cavalry. As we get closer to the bank the chanting becomes clearer and louder.

"Kill, maim, burn."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

What? I then hear their commander say,

"BLOOD FOR THE OLD GODS."

"SOULS FOR THE HOLY TREES."

Which was followed by the previous chant in more fervor by their men,

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

"KILL, MAIM, BURN."

Fuck! Northern barbarians.

As soon as we reached the bank, they charged towards us. I tried to rally my men, but we were in a huge disadvantage with our position. I saw an enemy horseman charge towards me, swinging his mace. I parried it with my shield and attempted to strike him down only to be struck on my helm by another horseman. The last thing I heard before the Stranger took me was "KILL, MAIM, BURN." the Gods have forsaken me.

* * *

**Wylis Bolton**

The first half battle went as we expected. We did lose several overzealous men, but they made sure to exact a heavy toll on the enemy in exchange for their lives. When we heard the signal signaling the second half we traversed across the river to encircle the attackers from behind. The Vale men also did the same from the far bank of the Red Fork.

After we managed to fully encircle them, I noticed the speed and accuracy with which the arrows from the castle were landing on the enemy. It must be from Prince Rhaegor's knights. Lord Stark had warned me about these men who inspired him to create the Northern Knights.

They looked like ordinary archers wearing tight robes from a distance. Upon closer look, one would find them wearing black colored padding over their full plate armor. They were exceptionally accurate with their strange recurve bows. I tried shooting using those monstrosities before the battle, and Gods, they are the most powerful bows I have laid my hands on. Only my trained war bowmen were able to handle those bows. Rhaegor's knights used those bows like effortlessly. There were only four thousand, but they were deadly beyond measure. Thank the Gods that they are fighting on our side.

It was also very surprising that none of the women among the enemy forces were targets of their arrows. It spoke of their extreme skill with the bow and their ideals of chivalry.

We started clearing the field by killing the men and sparing the women who surrendered, this caused the men to fight with more fervor and more women to surrender. Pathetic, these lasses would not be able to hold a candle to the ferocious women of the North.

In a moment of carelessness, I let myself get pulled down from my horse and was immediately surrounded by three traitor knights. I was not going to die without a fight. I pulled out my sword ready to fight but in the next moment, all the three men collapsed as they received arrows to their faces and necks. One of the arrows even passed through the eyehole of a knight's helm.

The walls of the castle were still more than three hundred yards from me. For an archer to hit a target with such accuracy from such a distance? I let out an involuntary shudder. Rhaegor's knights are absolutely terrifying. No wonder Lord Stark asked me to be wary of them.

* * *

**Highgarden 43 AC – Six weeks after the Battle of Stonebridge.**

**Theo Tyrell**

I'm going to be remembered as the Lord that caused the downfall of House Tyrell. My sons claim so behind my back. It was funny that they still haven't managed to gather the courage to say it outright to my face. I'm no fool. Faith Militant's chances against the Targaryens were nonexistent.

However, declaring against the Faith? How could my sons even consider such a blasphemy? Fighting against the defenders of the Faith? I shudder at the thought of it. Is getting into the favor of the Targaryens worth abandoning your salvation? Short-sighted fools. I have complete confidence that the Seven would not let me down at this moment of my great need. My decision to not take up arms against neither against my liege nor against my Gods was the best solution to the conundrum I found myself in.

There have been talks about other houses getting into the good graces of the royals by managing to remain steadfast in their loyalty to the Targaryens. King Maegor himself came upon the Black Dread to slaughter the Lords that declared for their Gods over their King by relieving the siege at Cider Hall. This is all the fault of Lord Martyn fucking Hightower. He was the one who incited the High Septon, resulting in this realm wide war with the Targaryens. Now that the Faith Militant has been defeated he has completely gone silent along with the High Septon.

I received the news about the Battle of Stonebridge. I do have to wonder what was going on in the heads of the Faith Militant commanders. Taking your numerically superior army into a chokepoint? Gross incompetence.

News that the Targaryens completely slaughtered them but without the use of dragon fire was what piqued my interest. Cider Hall's siege ended when the King Maegor entered the fight with his dragon, but the damage done to the fields around the castle due to dragon fire was extensive. The Fossoways are expected to lose all their harvest for this cycle. I need to know how the Targaryens were able to achieve such a decisive victory without using their dragons.

Hearing a knock on the door, I turn around to see my squire answer it. I see the commander of the Highgarden's household knights walk into my study. Ser Alastor Garner, my closest ally and trusted advisor. I had previously sent him with ten more of my household knights to investigate the Battle of Stonebridge. His return means I can finally have some answers to the puzzling questions that have been plaguing my mind since I heard the initial news.

"Alastor, I hope you have found some answers for me, my friend," I state to the commander.

"Yes, my lord." He answers.

"Oh drop the formalities Alastor, we have known each other since we were toddlers." I chide him for his obnoxious habit of staying formal.

"Yes, my lord" he replies with a smirk.

I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Let's begin with the dragons. Did the loyalists not use them at Stonebridge?" I ask my first question.

"They did, but not in the way we expected them to. They were used to throw huge rocks that exploded upon falling on the ground. Some of the men I spoke to, stated that it was more horrifying than seeing dragons burning men." He replies with a somber face.

Exploding rocks? More horrifying?

"What do you mean commander?" I ask puzzled.

"The dragons never dipped below the height of two hundred yards whenever they were seen on the battlefield. Even the Black Dread can only shoot jets of fire up to a distance of one hundred yards. I don't know how the Targaryens managed to make the rocks explode but based on my inquires, each rock would create a hole in the ground about twenty-five feet wide and killed everyone caught in that area. The exploding splinters of the rocks would then kill men around a sixty to seventy feet wide area. This tactic maimed the men fighting more than it killed them." He gave me an explanation.

I felt fear take a grip over me as Alastor completed his explanation. The ability to kill and main scores of men without even giving them a chance to fight back was horrifying. The ability of dragons to ignore the defenses a castle provides was proven in the burning of Harrenhal. The Fields of Fire showed their ability to ignore anything the Westerosi armies could throw at them. When the dragon Meraxes met its end at Hellholt the illusion of invincibility the dragons had, was shattered. Dragons could be killed.

However, if they attack from a height of more than two hundred yards, even the most powerful siege weapons we possess would be useless against the dragons. A single one of those exploding rocks could destroy a wall section and all its defenses along with it. I need to talk to the maester and rethink a strategy for the future.

"That is indeed a horrifying way to use the dragons. I can see how the Faith forces would have been decimated with such attacks. What else did you find?" I ask Alastor.

"From what I gathered, the dragons were used but it was the Black Hoods that were pivotal in the decimation of the Faith Militant."

Black Hoods, the name given to the Targaryen household knights after the Vulture Hunt. They were exceptionally skilled cavalry archers. When I initially heard news about them after the Vulture Hunt, I belittled them saying they were wasting good horses that could be used for heavy cavalry units. It is madness to attempt shooting a bow accurately from horseback. Later, upon receiving more detailed information about the two battles of the Vulture Hunt I was forced to change my mind.

Cavalry archers can be used in ranges similar to regular archers and they can be a deadly force on the battlefield. However, it would take years for the knights to be proficient in cavalry archery. Their results produced by the Targaryen knights were so impressive that I had even ordered my household knights to train in the art whenever they had time to do so.

"Aren't they just the household knights of the Targaryens? Why were they so important?"

"I spoke to many witnesses including Lord Footly's men. They are not just household knights, they are an order of knights sworn to House Targaryen. They call themselves Templars. None I spoke to are sure about their total number but based on all the information I received, I estimate it to be around fifteen thousand. Also, the Lannisport Purge was executed by just a thousand of these knights. That should be a good example of their skill and ability." Alastor states about the knights.

I grimaced at the mention of Lannisport Purge. The complete slaughter of the Faith Militant of Lannisport was carried out in retribution to their attack on late King Aenys. It was the event that set off this entire conflict.

"Wait a minute! You mean to say that the royal family has access to an order of knights that is three times the size of the Warrior Sons? This is not including the bannermen of the Crownlands?"

"Yes, they are not part of the Crownlands bannermen."

I start to get a little irritated. Why does the royal family need such a force? Isn't that the idea behind having vassals? To supply the fighting force needed for their liege. The force is probably funded by the Crown. If the Crown has that much money to throw around, they should lower taxes instead of spending it on a military force.

"It must cost a fortune to supply and maintain such a force. Did you find anything about their weapons and armor? Did you get a chance to meet the knights in person or all your information based on hearsay?" I ask Alastor

"I did run into a group of the Templars on my way back along the Roseroad. The men were all armored in a dark full plate and carried two strange-looking sword/axes. However, their primary weapons appeared to be bows." He replies in response.

Fifteen thousand men in full plate. That alone would cost a hundred thousand dragons. He ran into them on the Roseroad?

"What were they doing on the Roseroad, Alastor?" I ask with trepidation.

"The loyalist force is sweeping towards Oldtown and executing traitor Lords, seizing their titles and lands, while women and children are sent as prisoners to Harrenhal." Ser Alastor answers with a grimace.

I feel rage swell in me at this revelation. How dare they? I'm the Lord Paramount of the Mander and those Lords are my vassals. I should be the one punishing the traitorous forces. This act sends a message to my vassals that I'm incompetent.

Seeing that I was enraged, Alastor continued, "Theo, calm down. I know that this must be hard for you to swallow but the truth is there is nothing we can do about it. The Targaryens gave House Tyrell its power and they easily could take it away as well. I believe this is the same treatment the traitor Lords all over the realm are facing. House Tyrell was the only Lord Paramount that did not declare on the loyalist side and I personally believe that the Targaryens are sending us a message that they don't need us to govern the Reach."

He did have a case. Did I make a mistake with my choice?

"My friend, do you think I made a mistake?" I ask him as despair takes hold of me.

Alastor responds saying, "Theo, you did what you felt was correct. You knew the Faith was going to be defeated and yet you chose to stay neutral out of your fear for the Gods. We knew the accusations against the Targaryens were outlandish. The Targaryens did try to make peace with the Faith and were rejected at every turn. Yes, I do think you made a mistake."

Alastor's statement hit me hard. Am I going to lose everything because of those rotten Hightowers? Not if I can do anything about it.

"Alastor, gather all your men and prepare. We ride for Oldtown as soon as possible." I announce to him.

"It is too late, my friend. The bulk of the loyalist forces are just a couple of weeks away from Oldtown. It would take longer for our men to march there. By the time we reach Oldtown, it would be in time to see the Hightowers taken as prisoners or be executed for treason. Even the Hightower doesn't stand a chance against the two dragons."

Hightowers as prisoners? That would be a sight to see.

"What are they going to do with their prisoners?" I ask, curious about their fate.

"From what I heard the boys over ten are sent to the Wall. The rest are being sent to Dragonstone and would probably be made to work there." He replied.

Highborn women made to work as common laborers? I guess after being stripped of their lands and titles they can no longer be considered as highborn.

Our only option is to wait for the Targaryen judgment and hope it is lenient.


	15. Act 1 - 11 Gambits Galore

**Dragonstone 48 AC**

**Jaehaerys Targaryen**

The last few weeks feel like a blur. The funeral of Rhaena's children turned into a very messy affair. Mother came to Dragonstone for the funeral and the chaos escalated with both Rhaegor and mother slinging insults at each other at every possible turn. Rhaegor was courteous but didn't hold back when my mother started her tirades. I wonder what happened between the two to create such animosity.

There was also a feeling of tension in the air. The people of Dragonstone were angry, as their princes and princesses had been killed brutally by foreigners. The identity of the assassins and the ones that hired them spread like fire among the smallfolk. Rhaegor, however, added a small lie to that information and also implicated the Faith Militant in the assassination. I understood he did it to give me an edge over the Faith Militant when I had to deal with them but using his children's death seemed cold-hearted.

The people wanted me to do something as I was the King but until my majority, I will be powerless. As the Protector of the Realm, Lord Baratheon declared that the incident involved the Kingdom of Narrow Sea and the Free Cities and that the Iron Throne was a neutral party. I was outraged, how could I sit idly and let my sister and her husband face off against the combined might of Four Free cities.

I tried to speak to them about it and all they told me was that they were taking care of it and asked me not to worry. I'm the King, dammit, I should not be kept in the dark about how my realm is run and how my family is dealing with a tragedy. I ended up exploding in anger during a dinner with my uncle and sister.

"I'm supposed to be the King, why wouldn't anyone tell me what is going on? How am I going to learn to rule if everyone just keeps secrets from me?" I asked them in anger.

Rhaegor looked at me with an amused smile and nodded towards Rhaena. Rhaena called the servants over and whispered something in their ears. More secrets.

The servants left the four of us and closed the doors of the room. Rhaena then proceeded to perform the sealing magic in the room.

"You lost me ten dragons Jaehaerys," Rhaena stated with a pout.

"What? How?" I asked them confused.

"Don't worry too much about it. Rhaena and I had a bet on when you would snap and start yelling." Rhaegor replied with a chuckle.

The situation was turning odder every minute. He seems too happy for a man who lost his children to assassins.

"Why would you bet on something like that?" Alysanne asked them, probably also confused by their weird behavior.

"No reason in particular. We just did." Rhaegor answered as continued eating his dinner nonchalantly.

Rhaena let out a sigh and said, "Ignore him, he is going to bask in his victory for a few minutes. I know you both have a lot of questions and we have the rest of the evening to answer it. So ask away."

Well, it seems like they were prepared for my questions. Why do I feel like I'm being toyed with by these two?

"What are you planning to do to the Free Cities?" I asked my first question.

"Take dragons and go burn a lot of their buildings, set the slaves free and champion a slave revolt. For Braavos we plan on destroying the Arsenal and its Titan. By the time they recover from the damages we inflicted, you and Alysanne would have both reached your majority and well into your rule. Hopefully, you would even have several cute and cuddly children by then." Rhaena answered nonchalantly.

She is talking about an invasion and total destabilization of four major free cities on the west coast of Essos as if she was discussing how she would take a stroll along the castle walls. How do they plan on doing this? Dragons alone aren't enough to cause the chaos they intend to. They need an army and they need the support of the Iron Throne for that.

"How are you planning on achieving this without the support of the Iron Throne?" I asked her.

Rhaegor bursts into laughter upon hearing my question.

"What was so funny in my question?" I retorted.

He managed to contain his laughter and replied, "Jaehaerys, as King of the Seven Kingdoms you need to understand something that is very, very important. The world doesn't revolve around the Iron Throne. The Iron Throne has as much power as you choose to give it. Do you know why I asked Rhaena to give up her claim to that pointy chair?"

Alysanne and Rhaena burst into giggles at the mention of 'The pointy chair'. I don't see what is funny but it is certainly an interesting way to call the seat of power of the seven kingdoms.

"No."

"I don't need the support of the Iron Throne. I conquered the Stepstones on my own and truthfully I'm the King of Narrow Sea," he declared only to get elbowed on his sides by Rhaena.

"Well thinking about it, I do share the rulership of the islands with Rhaena," he conceded wincing a bit.

That is strange, why would you allow a woman to rule with you as an equal? Doesn't that diminish your authority?

He continued saying, "The kingdom of the Narrow Sea doesn't belong to the Iron Throne, my domain includes the isles of Stepstones, Tarth and Acropolis half of Dragonstone."

Wait what?

"Haven't you sworn fealty to the King of the Seven Kingdoms? Doesn't that make your lands part of the Seven Kingdoms." I asked in outrage.

"No, the last King on the Iron Throne I swore fealty to was your father. Maegor never asked me to as he knew I wouldn't do it and I'm not going to do it to you either." Rhaegor replied with a smile.

That explains Lord Baratheon's response. I don't think anyone can make him kneel either. I wonder how King Maegor felt when he realized that he couldn't make his brother swear fealty to him. I can't even begin to think about the political ramifications this would cause in the long run. Establishing a kingdom separate from the Iron Throne and belittling the authority of the same Throne, of course, I should have expected him to do something like that. The man was called the Wild Prince after all.

"After losing your knights, how do you plan on holding to those lands without the help of the Seven Kingdoms?" Alysanne asked him from the side.

She does raise a valid point, there is no way he can defend his domain after his loss.

"The same way I held on to them for the past three years. You are mistaken if you think I took aid from Maegor," he replied nonchalantly.

Wait what? How?

"How did you manage to do it?" Alysanne followed up with another question.

"Maegor and I developed Dragonstone from a dreary volcanic island to what it is right now by but the development of Acropolis was done almost entirely by Rhaena and me. Tarth, I conquered after House Tarth declared for the Faith during the uprising. I conquered the Stepstones because I needed to smuggle Leonna and her kids to safety." Rhaegor responded with a thoughtful look.

"Wait what?" I asked in surprise.

"Lady Leonna is alive?" Alysanne asked.

Does that mean his eldest twins are still alive?

Rhaegor let out a chuckle and replied, "Not only her, all my children are alive too."

"What?" "What?" Both Alysanne and I were surprised at this revelation.

"Did you two seriously think that I would allow a bunch of nobody assassins to breach castle Dragonstone and kill my children. It is something that even Faceless Men have failed to do." Rhaegor asked us with a smug and satisfied smile.

"The corpses we saw?" Alysanne asked him.

"The assassins were real. We learned about the plot and set up decoys to give us enough time to smuggle the children to safety." Rhaena explained.

"Did cousin Alys die for the sake of your grand plot?" I asked outraged.

Rhaegor stared at me incredulously and asked me, "Jaehaerys, why do you think her corpse was real? She is with the children, safe."

"The three dragon eggs?" Alysanne asked.

Rhaegor sighed and replied, "That I have no clue. The assassins must have got greedy on the way to doing their actual job and decided to steal it."

Well, I do have to find a way to track those. The assassins would try to sell those and the only places I can think of are Braavos and Volantis. Seeing that they were hired by Braavos I should investigate them first.

"We were completely fooled but why go through all this mummery and deceit?" I asked them.

Rhaegor's face changed from his chipper and happy one to the cold and furious one I saw on the night of the fire.

"Jaehaerys, our family was on the verge of being wiped out and the perpetrators behind that was the cause for both my brother's deaths. I don't know about you, if someone thinks they can hurt my family and still expect to live, it is a mistake that I should correct." Rhaegor started his explanation with his voice laced with fury.

He proceeded to reveal the conspiracy that was staged against our family and how he had been fighting it for the past three years. Even his plans of invasion was to draw attention towards himself and away from me.

"I plan on causing enough chaos while staying hidden to divert their attention from you. Once we have enough information about this Entity we will strike and I will bring them Fire and Blood." He explained his goals.

Well FUCK!

Whoever this group was, they played us like fools. It explained everything. Father's assassination by the Faith when he was trying his best to maintain peace, Maegor's assassination and finally why Rhaegor wanted to keep the kingdom of the Narrow Sea separated from the Iron Throne. Here I was acting like a petulant child when my sister and uncle are doing their very best to keep our family safe. Gods, this is a fucking mess.

Alysanne grabbed my hand and started squeezing it. I looked to the side to see her give me a reassuring smile. My rage dissipated seeing that. Thank you, my love. I pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. Rhaena seeing this let out a loud squeal and pulled us both into one of her bear hugs.

"Rhaena, c-cant b-breathe." I managed to blurt out.

Rhaena released us from the hug and Rhaegor pulled her back, she went back to his chair and sat there pouting at Rhaegor's side.

Having recovered from my moment of rage followed by the sisterly suffocation I turned to Rhaegor who was now back to his smiling calm self and asked, "How can I help you?"

"Be a good King like your father and rule the realm wisely. As long as you are seen as not being involved with what I'm doing, you will be safe. The Lords of the realm will not have a reason to complain either, as their alternative will be me who will be burning and destroying cities," he replied with a smirk.

I wondered who all knew about this conspiracy.

"Is that why Lord Baratheon declared neutrality," I asked him.

"Yes, Rogar is one of the very few who knows about the Entity. I don't understand how he could fall in love with that stupid bitch, but apart from that, he is the most trustworthy person you could rely on." Rhaegor replied as he got elbowed on his side by Rhaena again.

"Ouch. What? You saw how she behaved when she was here? Oh well, she is their headache and as long as she doesn't step into my domain I won't kill her out of the respect I have for Aenys." Rhaegor responded to her defiantly.

Dealing with my mother will be a headache indeed. Unless I can find a way to settle their differences.

"What happened between you two? I don't remember you two being so hostile when I was younger." I asked him

"I would like to know that too," stated Rhaena sporting a confused expression.

Rhaegor let out a loud sight and started to explain, "If you had asked me last week I wouldn't have known either. It is something I found out only recently from Maegor's journals. After Aegon's suicide run into Balerion, Alyssa was depressed and was struggling to come to terms with it. She had essentially sent her son to his death and she took to heavy drinking as a result. One night when Maegor was in Dragonstone they were both drunk and ended up spending the night together."

He paused to probably see the shocked expressions on our faces, he smiled and continued, "Maegor in his infinite wisdom, without having the stones to face an angry Alyssa left as soon as possible the next morning to King's Landing. Alyssa woke up to realize that she slept with someone in her drunken stupor and I was the only adult male Targaryen around in the castle. She came to the wrong conclusion that I was the one who slept with her and confronted me."

"I had no idea what happened and I tried to console her thinking she was still grieving over Aegon's death. She must have thought that I was attempting to seduce her and that is the start of her animosity towards me. I swear I didn't sleep with Alyssa. I value my manhood too much and didn't want to be gelded by my wives. Fucking Maegor knew about it and thought it was hilarious."

FUCK!

There goes any plans of me settling this easily. Would my mother even believe this? I have to give it a try.

"Wait, wives, as in more than one?" Alysanne asked.

Oh yes, I missed that part of his explanation. Multiple wives?

Rhaegor gave an amused smile and explained, "I married Leonna in an unofficial ceremony. Rhaena was aware of that before our marriage."

Well, that explained why Rhaena was willing to put up with Lady Leonna being close to Rhaegor even after his marriage to my sister. One more thing that I will have to explain to mother.

"So Maegor slept with mother and she thinks you did it. Why don't you explain it to her?" Rhaena asked her husband.

Rhaegor's face contorted into a frown and he replied, "She is a bitch and I don't think she would listen even if I tried explaining it to her. Poor Rogar though, he must have hit his head somewhere to fall in love with her."

No sister letting them both talk together would end up with our mother trying to kill your husband and your husband's patience tested to his limits.

"Can I have that journal? We can try talking to her." Alysanne stated what was on my head.

"Sure, I'll bring it over to you later," Rhaegor replied.

Wait a minute.

"What about the Faith Militant?" I asked.

"Your rebellion was staged to draw them out into the open and it did. Balerion's rampage killed most of them and the remaining would be nothing more than glorified bandits," he responded.

So even that was staged? It makes sense if his knights were still active.

"You used the fact that your knights were assumed to be dead to incite the rebellious faction?"

"Yes, I did. Rogar played the most important role in that mummery." Rhaegor replied with a smug smile.

"I have a plan to deal with the Faith permanently" I stated.

"Go on"

"I plan on creating an order of knights like yours, but they will act as if they are men of the Faith and preach the wonders of the Valyrian civilization and make the smallfolk believe that we are exceptional to the regular Faith doctrines. That way even if we act outside of the tenets of the Faith we will be excused and the Lords cannot use it against us." I explained my plan.

Rhaegor burst into a fit of laughter after hearing my idea.

"Was it that bad?" I asked him.

"No, it is fucking perfect. Do you know why I initially wanted to create the Templars?" he asked me in return attempting to contain his laughter.

"No."

"I wanted to mock the Warrior Sons for intruding on Maegor's wedding to Ceryse. I wanted to create an order of knights that worshipped the dragon gods and preached Valyrian exceptionalism. Mother felt that it would draw the ire of the pious Lords and they would see it as a threat, so I had to modify it. You see why I find your idea so funny?" he asked.

"It is your idea but instead of the Dragon Gods I'm using the Seven?" I guessed.

"Your idea is fucking perfect. The Lords can't complain and Faith won't complain either. It is the perfect way to shut down the Faith completely about our Valyrian practices." He responded and continued,

"I wanted to leave with you two thousand of my knights as a personal force to deal with emergency measures. With your idea, I want to up that number to five thousand. They will be men and women trained to protect you two from most external threats. I will also set aside personal trainers to bring you both up to a level where you can fend off even Faceless Men level threats."

"Thank you for your generosity uncle," Alysanne replied to him.

"I don't think you both will be thanking me after the training starts. It is going to be more painful for Jaehaerys as he has only two years before he will have his Kingly duties to attend to. You can take it slow and I will find a way for you to develop your empathic perception too."

He knew about Alysanne's ability?

"Oh don't be surprised. It is something I possess too but not as prominent as Alysanne's. The more you train the more you will be able to control it and I will make sure I do all I can to help you with it."

Alysanne was overcome by emotion and rushed to hug him and offered her gratitude.

Well, it looks like I will be enduring a very painful next two years. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

* * *

**One week later**

**Rhaena Targaryen**

Ever since we explained everything to Jaehaerys, I was tasked with overseeing their training. I have assigned two Templar Legates directly for Jaehaerys' training and I had Sera Jonquil Darke, a knight of the Siver Hand for Alysanne's basic training. Once she gets to a sufficient level of physical and weapon proficiency she will be assigned to the Templars for the more advanced aspects of our bloodline training.

The rituals needed to perform the insane plan for ensuring Rhaegor's survival were going to need a lot of sacrifices. Rhaegor called the process a Horcrux ritual. Sometimes the imaginations of my husband creep me out.

Theoretically, the ritual works by splitting one's soul and anchoring it outside one's body so even if the body is destroyed the split portion would anchor his soul to the world and could be used to possess or create another body.

Rhaegor's idea was to split the soul and anchor it within Vhagar. It made sense as he already was bonded to the dragon which according to his theory was a soul link. His body would be frozen in time by a stasis spell to give Leonna time to find out what to do with the poison. After she finds the way to heal him, the spell on his body would be removed and the body would be healed. Once the healing is done the soul that is anchored in Vhagar would be transferred back to his body.

His initial idea of using the dragons Balerion and Vhagar to achieve this hit a dead end as he couldn't find a way to manipulate the dual bond to his advantage. We looked towards the resurrection rituals of the Red Cult for a solution.

Rhaegor found rituals used by the Red Cult for manipulating souls. Red priests and priestesses have been known to resurrect dead men and women by manipulating their souls. Unfortunately, their rituals don't work dragon riders, but Rhaegor had been working on modifying their soul manipulation techniques for his Horcrux ritual.

I was lost in thoughts when I heard Rhaegor let out a loud cheer from behind the pile of books and papers in his table.

"Did you find anything useful?" I asked him.

"I think I cracked the secret behind the Red Cult soul manipulation," he replied with a wide grin.

If he can make it work on himself we don't have to do the Horcrux ritual.

"You can make it work on a dragon rider?" I asked him hoping for a 'yes'.

"Unfortunately no. The more magically strong the body the more resistant it is to the resurrection process. That makes the dragon riders a big no," he replied with a shrug.

Well fuck, it looks like we are going ahead with the Horcrux ritual.

"So what did you find out?"

"They claim that their resurrection only works on deaths causing by injuries, sickness or poisoning. They sacrifice a part of the recently dead person's soul to heal whatever that caused their death and return the remaining soul into the body and resurrect the person. They are essentially splitting the soul into two and using a piece to magically heal the body. The requirement to heal depends on the nature of the ailment." He explained his findings.

Ok, that is worse than the Horcrux ritual. Destroying a piece of your soul forever? I would rather prefer Rhaegor's mad plan.

"Well, I presume you found a way to use it without have to sacrifice a part of your soul?" I asked him.

"Yes. I got the part where they split it. The interesting thing about this ritual is if someone has access to red priests or this ritual they can theoretically live forever. They mistakenly think that someone who died from old age cannot be resurrected. Old age is just the body becoming weak and worn down. Their ritual could theoretically reverse aging." He further explained.

If they are sacrificing a part of the soul to heal injuries, for reversing aging,

"I'm assuming the cost for that is going to be high." I voiced my thoughts.

"You are correct. From what we know about souls, they possess two major roles. They provide the spark of life and store information. The spark of life is self-explanatory but the information they store not only is restricted to our memories but also information about our physical form and our consciousness. When a red priest performs the resurrection ritual he is cutting off a portion of the soul and removing a part of their life spark, memories, and consciousness. The cost if very high. So if he does it to perform something like reversing aging he ends up using up the soul's life spark completely and it doesn't work." Rhaegor explained.

"Well, then it proves that aging cannot be reversed or healed by their ritual," I stated.

"You are mistaken here. What if we use sacrifices? It is similar to blood magic rituals. We can use another person's soul to fuel the healing. I'm going to assume the cost is going to be a lot higher than using one's soul, just like how we need more blood when we use sacrifices for our blood rituals."

It still makes it a different ritual from the Red Cult's one. That does give me an idea.

"Wouldn't that be a better way to heal your body than subject yourself to the soul mutilation? If something goes wrong in the process would the person we revive be the same you?" I asked him.

"Yes, it would be but again we have the issue of the method not working for dragon riders. We have to modify it for use on us and also modify it to work with sacrifices. Even with all the Templar Arcanists, it would take months, possibly years to perfect it," he explained the problems we would face.

Time is something we don't have. Dammit. Why do I have the feeling that we are missing something really obvious?

Rhaegor sighed and went back to look for something in his paper pile while two knights walked into the library towards us. I wondered what they wanted and why they were still wearing their helms.

The first knight removed his helm and I was surprised to see who it was. He made a motion towards me to not speak and he wanted to sneak up on Rhaegor. At that moment I realized who the second knight was too. Well, this is going to be fun.

The second knight walked up to Rhaegor without making a sound. That part of her ability alone made her the most dangerous woman I knew. Things started to go weird when she reached Rhaegor. Instead of attempting to surprise him as I expected her to do, she punched Rhaegor with her gauntleted fists on the side of his face causing him to crash down to the floor from his chair.

"What the hell mother?" Leoric screamed out loud.

It looks like he wasn't expecting Leonna's punch either. I checked on Rhaegor to see that he was knocked out.

"Why did you do that?" I turned to ask Leonna.

She gave out a snort and replied, "He fucking deserved it. It looked like I had to knock some common sense back into his head."

She then placed her palm on top of Rhaegor's head for a few moments and he came back to his senses.

"Hey, Leah? Am I dreaming? I must have fallen asleep in the library." Rhaegor asked seeing Leonna's face.

Leonna responded with a smack to his arm and said, "Get up you fucking dolt"

"Ouch, my head hurts. What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back in Raftel?" Rhaegor asked her with an incredulous expression.

That is a question I would like an answer too. My children are supposed to be with you, sister.

"And do what? Sit there twiddling my thumbs when you go and decide to make a fucking Horcrux? I meant it as a joke in my letter. Didn't think you would be stupid enough to try it." She responded in anger placing her hands on the place where her initial punch landed.

That still doesn't explain where my children are. She started to heal Rhaegor's face as he settled back into his chair.

"That was the only way I could think of to surviving the poison," Rhaegor explained with a resigned tone.

"That is why you are an idiot and we decided to come here." She responded as she finished healing his bruised face.

"Did Arty also come?" Rhaegor's face brightened as he asked about his eldest child.

Good point. Did you bring all the children back? What is the point of hiding yourself if you choose to break cover like this sister?

Leo let out a chuckle and replied, "Someone had to stay behind and run the island and take care of the kids, she drew the short straw."

Well, at least they didn't break cover completely.

"Okay, I understand Leonna breaking cover to come here. Why are you here?" Rhaegor asked Leoric.

"As if I would miss the chance to see you getting socked by mother," Leo replied with a wide grin.

"Seriously?" I asked him.

"No, I'm here for Balerion." He replied nonchalantly.

"What?" I asked reflexively.

"Hey, if I'm allowed to be a dragon rider I'm going to choose my dragon and I'm not letting Maegor's dragon go to anyone else," Leo explained his choice.

"You know that I'm trying to hide it right?" Rhaegor asked him burying his face into his hands.

Leoric let out a sigh and started to explain his idea in detail, "Uncle Aenys legitimized me as your son and as a Targaryen. If anyone wants to complain they can come straight to me. Besides we can just claim that Balerion came with us on its own volition and no one would have to know that it even has a rider. Also, the Black Dread and the Green Tyrant attacking together would cause more panic and divert the Entity's resources towards us and keep Jaehaerys safer."

Having Balerion fly with us would be better for the chaos we intend to unleash on the cities.

"We are all going to Acropolis Castle," Leonna announced.

"What? Why?" Rhaegor asked her with a confused expression.

"The medical facilities there are better and I don't have to deal with hiding from people who might find out that I'm still alive there," she responded to his question.

That is true. Technically their cover is still not broken and Acropolis would be the best place to maintain that.

"Why do you need medical facilities?" Rhaegor asked her.

"Because I have a way to cure your poison without having to mutilate your soul." She answered as she sat down in one of the chairs around the table.

"What?" "What?" Both Rhaegor and I were surprised at her statement

Leonna let out a sigh and explained, "You should have figured it yourself if you were thinking straight. Unfortunately, you weren't and I had to come here personally."

"What is the cure?" I asked her.

"Just fire crab venom. It is the antidote for manticore venom." She replied nonchalantly.

Isn't Rhaegor's poison magically enhanced and killing him from within due to the Valyrian steel.

That is it, the obvious thing both Rhaegor and I missed.

"You do know that my body will reject the venom right?" Rhaegor asked Leonna.

Leonna waved her hand and replied, "Yes, yes your passive magic regen will reject it. It not like you recently discovered something that negates all magic it is in contact with."

Finally, Rhaegor realized it too.

"Yes my love, I'm going to take the magic out of your cancer and give you fucking you a fucking chemo," Leonna answered with a smirk.

What is chemo? As I was thinking that, Leonna pulled out a small box from the bag she placed on the table and opened it. The box contained five needles with sharp points at both ends bulging a bit towards the middle. Those looked odd.

"Wait, did you make Naruto style senbon out of Valyrian Steel?" Rhaegor asked in an astonished tone.

Naruto? Senbo? Those being made out of Valyrian Steel made sense as she was going to use it to cure Rhaegor.

"Yes, I did. The forgers were bit confused when I asked them to do it but it was easy to make and had them make a set. It didn't take much material either." Leonna replied with her smirk.

"Fucking hell. This is going to suck." Rhaegor responded with a resigned tone again.

What? Why? This is supposed to cure you. Why is it going to suck?

"Oh yes, maybe next time you will think before you use your body as a shield against a weapon that could kill you," Leonna replied with a predatory grin.

"Can someone explain what these two are talking about?" I asked in exasperation.

* * *

**Pentos 48 AC**

**Meshorlah Drennanar**

If Martyn was still alive, I would kill him myself. This fucking mess is all his fault. The plan to assassinate the oldest two Targaryens was partially successful with me killing one of them and losing half of the Faceless Men under my command. The Black Dread's tantrum ensured that none of my men deployed were alive and I'm completely in the dark as to what exactly happened in that arena. The Faith is toothless, the Faith Militant is exterminated and Addam is still not ready to take over his father's role in the Council.

To make things worse the four sniveling idiots in front of me got greedy and killed the Targaryen children in their stronghold right as I was about to make my next move. All my plans are in shambles and I have to re-assess everything. Did they think that the remaining Targaryens would not retaliate for such an attack? Now the Kingdom of the Narrow Sea has set its sights on the west coast of Essos.

Braavos, Pentos, Tyrosh and Lys the four cities involved in the plan of extreme stupidity. Best case scenario I'm looking at a direct conquest and at worst I'm expecting to four cities to be completely razed to the ground. The Naval blockade has already started, and it is only a matter of time before Rhaegor launches his offensive.

Lord Shadow's orders were to kill the twin brothers and bring the younger Targaryens to our side. The assassination plot was half successful but now I was left with an enraged dragon rider and these idiots added oil to the fire. Maegor is dead and I have no idea what to do with Rhaegor as he should be aware of the assassination attempt on him. I should talk to Lord Shadow before attempting anything.

"Do you four have any idea what you have done?" I asked the four bound and gagged men kneeling in front of me.

"Remove their gags," I ordered the men.

Lothor's men proceeded to remove the gags from the leaders of the four cities.

As soon as they were free to talk, they started to shout and swear at me. I signaled Lothor again and he decapitated the Archon of Tyrosh with a swift swing of his blade and the other three shut up. Ah sweet silence, just the way I like it.

"Who are you?" a very panicked Sea Lord asked me.

"Right now, I'm your worst nightmare. One month back I was the one ensuring that you idiots stayed in power." I replied with anger laced in my voice.

"I can give you anything you want. I'm the Sea Lord of Braavos, I can promise you all the gold in the world. I can contact the Iron Bank and they will pay whatever I ask. Please don't kill me," he started sniveling and groveling at my feet.

I landed a kick on his fat belly that made him curl up in pain.

"You. Cannot. Offer. Me. Anything. That. I. Don't. Have." I replied with a kick between each word.

The other two were watching the scene unfolding in front of them with horror. Good, that is the reaction I was expecting.

"Here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to send all your heads as a peace offering to Rhaegor Targaryen and hope it is enough to placate him." I announced to the three.

They realized that they are not getting out of this room alive and The Archon of Lys started begging for his life.

"We were only doing what was good for the Free Cities. The Targaryens were meddling with our trade and I would rather do something than slowly watch our trade and naval superiority crumble into nothingness."

I was getting annoyed with his sniveling and decided to end it. With a single strike, his head was separated from his body. I turned towards the remaining two and started to explain,

"Good? Do you shit cunts know what has been going on in the last two weeks? The naval blockade has already begun. They are preparing for an invasion. You should know what dragons do to fleets. Your cities are completely fucked."

"Please, my lady. There must be a way for us to fix this." The Prince of Pentos started his begging seeing that his chances of living were approaching zero.

"Oh, my sweet prince, there is and that is exactly what I'm doing," I replied to him as I swung my sword and decapitated him.

"Who are you?" The Sea Lord looked like he resigned himself to his fate.

Lothor stepped in front of him and stated, "You are talking to the executor of the Iron Bank, Lady Meshorlah Drennanar."

He ended his statement with another decapitating strike with his sword on the Sea Lord.

"Thank you Lothor. Now send their heads to Prince Rhaegor and make sure he knows that they were sent by the Iron Bank." I said as I cleaned the blood off my sword.

"Yes, mother." He responded and signaled his men to collect the four heads. We walked to the next room and I closed the door.

"I will have to speak to Lord Shadow about this recent development and get his opinion on how to proceed. Use the Bank's carrack to make the trip to Westeros. That should get you through the blockade. Stay with your brother in Battle Isle till the crisis is fully resolved." I said as I pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the forehead.

He nodded and walked out of the room to prepare for his upcoming trip.

Fucking Hightower, the boys are the only good that came out of our relationship. I hope you are rotting in hell for leaving me alone to clean up your mess. I sighed knowing that at least I was able to avenge his death.


End file.
